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December, 1992
BOARDWATCH magazine
EDITOR S NOTES 6
LETTERS 8
TELEBITS 13
PCMCIA Memory Card Slots - an Emerging Technology 14
Oxford English Dictionary on CD-ROM 14
Nationwide Telephone Directory on CD-ROM 14
Works of Literature CD-ROM Offers 2334 Titles - $39.95 75
Italian Version of Galacticomm's MAJOR BBS Now Available 75
ATT 14.4kbps Chipset at $79K 75
A Day in Court for Hayes Over Modem Escape Sequence Patent 75
U.S. Robotics Sportster 14400 - an Unintended Bargain 75
TELIX Communications Terminal Program Sold - Last Shareware Version Due 19
Offline Mail - Slashing Phone Bills with Sparky Herring's QWK Mail Readers 22
What Happened to ISDN? 29
SOFTWARE NOTES 33
Green leaf COMM LIB - Modem Communication Programming Made Easier 33
Shareware FAX Utilities for Networks 36
Qmodem-Pro - Terminal Program with Offline Mail Released 38
NAPLPS Graphics Gains Legs as Online Graphics Standard 42
Searchlight BBS Adds Multiline Dig i Board Support - 10 lines from a Single PC 45
LEGALLY ONLINE 46
Book Review: THE HACKER CRACKDOWN . by Bruce Sterling 46
SPA Educates Public on Software Copyrights - NOT! 57
MACINTOSH BBS NEWS 53
HI-BBS: GUI for MAC and Windows 53
Lotus Notes for Macintosh - BBS Software for Grownups 53
New Microphone II Version Supports TCP/IP 54
Multitasking Telecom Software 55
MAC BBS of the Month 57
INTERNETNEWS 58
Internet Statistics - Over 6000 Networks Now Connected 58
MindVOX - New York Internet Service 59
ECONET: The Ecology Network 62
DIRECT DIAL 66
The Ozone Hole ,66
Connecting to FidoNet - an Odyssey of the Next Generation 66
200,000 Book Titles Online - Book Stacks Unlimited - Online Home for Book Lovers 67
THIS MONTH - TACOMA WASHINGTON 68
NATIONAL LIST OF SELECTED BBS 82
Boardwatch Magazine (ISSN:1 054-2760) is published monthly at an annual subscription rate of $36 ($69 Canada/Mexico -$99
Overseas) by Boardwatch Magazine, 7586 West Jewell Ave., Suite 200, Lakewood, CO 80232. Second Class Postage Paid at
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Boardwatch - December 1992 5
EDITORS NOTES
VISIONS OF SUGAR
PLUMS... AND
COPYRIGHTS.
The very early days of the personal
computer were a bit of a magic time.
I don’t mourn for their loss entirely,
but the community was rather wide
open with people like Ward
Christensen and Andrew
Fleugleman lauding the concept of
contributing works to the commu-
nity. Bulletin boards were free, soft-
ware was free, telephone calls were
expensive.
It had to change to progress I sup-
pose. And while my own
acknowledgement of the inevitabil-
ity of a commercial bulletin board
industry has been somehow recast
as an advocacy for blatant commer-
cialism, I still view some aspects of
the current trend toward cutting
the cheese in ever finer slices with
some alarm.
This mixed emotion has merit on
both sides. In a perfect world where
shareware software and bulletin
boards for pay work sufficiently to
provide a financial incentive to soft-
ware authors and BBS operators,
we woul d quite naturally have more
and better software, and more and
better bulletin boards. I’m for all
that well and good enough.
Most of the economic basis for an
online economy rests on Title 17 of
the United States Code regarding
copyrights - the right of the creator
of a work to control the reproduction
of the work. This law is a painful
balance between the property rights
of creators and the rights of the
public to access information. It’s
always been imperfect, and in fact
the actual practical law we live with
is more embedded in the case his-
tory of disagreements over the law
than it is on the foundation of the
written law itself. I suppose most
law works this way, but my sense is
that copyright law works this way
more than most.
The concept of shareware rests on
this law - and apparently allows the
author to control the right of copy-
ing the program. I’m going to guess
I believe that releasing software
copies to the public, and then speci-
fying a bewildering array of restric-
tions on how and when they use it,
is actually pretty shakey. The origi-
nal concept rather loosely of “if you
use it - send us money” has given
way to an amazingly creative array
of restrictions based on who you are,
what you’re using it for, and what
day of the week it is. Some of these
license “agreements” are absurd.
Personally, I don’t believe the law
covers this extension of right of copy
to a right to dictate how and when
you do what, and who you are al-
lowed to be on what day. Certainly
it poses an enforcement problem
but I would question its legality as
well.
Actually, there is very little case law
supporting all of this. Almost every
dispute so far has been settled out of
court under the threat that it may
be expensive if the infringer finds
that the law does support all these
restrictions. And there is no short-
age of duly educated and licensed
lawyers working the online world
ever ready to split hairs as finely as
any participant desires - theoreti-
cally of course.
On the other hand, the recent epi-
sode with Playboy magazine suing
Event Horizons is pretty clear I
guess. They publish a magazine.
They publish photos. Event Hori-
zons had scanned images of the
photos online. And facing millions
of dollars in potential liability, they
settled out of court. Again, we seem
to have a decision here without ben-
efit of court. We now accept that
scanned images of photographs are
a copyright infringement. I suppose
it makes sense. But it was never
“decided” and I guess a case could be
made against the concept. But in
any event, it is now accepted within
the community and that probably
lends a great deal of weight to it.
And Playboy is going around the
country shaking down BBS opera-
tors for cash without a chance of
any of them being able to afford
actually forcing the issue to court.
Good work if you can get it. Wouldn’t
it be odd if it turned out to be based
on a house of cards?
I guess I believe magazines should
be protected by copyright law, but
then I would. And I like the idea of
a programmer being able to con-
trive a program and profit thereby
without having to buy into the re-
tail channel - to get a start in the
shareware world. But there are ex-
tremes.
The result, if taken to extreme and
paraphrasing science fiction author
Bruce Sterling, is a world where
every bit and pixel in cyberspace
will come complete with a price tag.
And we’re not far from it at this
point.
As an aside example, there are a
handful of very tiny software devel-
opers working on NAPLPS tools for
bulletin boards. This thing is still in
its infancy, and we already have
two broken terminal programs on
the street - neither one are actually
useful and they both work differ-
ently. But in the process of working
on the tools, an imbroglio has bro-
ken out over copyrights to some
actually pretty crude images done
with a graphics program - NAPLPS
frames as they are coming to be
called. They were done to demon-
strate NAPLPS and put out in pub-
lic to demonstrate NAPLPS - and
all participants agree they are to be
shared - but by certain end users
and not used by anyone else, and
further not to be used on certain
days, and it goes on . At heart, the
creators want all the advantages of
a wide open public network where
6 Boardwatch - December 1992
thousands can view and become
aware of the work, but then they
want in the same breath to dictate
how they are used in any area where
there might be the possibility of a
buck. And with a user base cur-
rently probably less than a few
hundred callers who can even view
them, bitter acrimony and threats
of lawsuits over these images has
already come to a head.
The emotional struggle these people
go through to justify all this is pain-
ful to watch. They are the new
breed ofTele-pathetics. Surrounded
by possibilities and confounded and
bound by fear and greed, they ago-
nize over release of anything they
do, fearful of missing an ethereal
chance at a buck, and at the same
time desperate for public
acknowlegement of something that
will never be acknowledged until it
is made public. What if they release
something and no one notices or
cares? Even more painful is the
concept that they could release
something, receive public
acknowledgement, and somebody
ELSE make a buck at it. They are
greedy for the advantages of a free
public network forum, and fearful
of the consequences of using it. If
they could only have it both ways....
That millions of dollars has changed
hands for terminal programs and
BBS software incorporating
XMODEM, with no payment to the
original authors, doesn’t ease the
pain - it makes it worse for the
telepathetics. And the result, in my
opinion, is endless debate of theo-
retical law made more of wishful
thinking than ofTitle 17. The search
for the holy grail that will allow
them to have their cake and eat it
too.
Now U.S. Robotics is waving the
copyright flag over AT commands
they themselves engineered into
their modems. The commands work
to suspend some crippling in their
ROM code - making Sportster Mo-
dems very nearly functionally
equivalent to the higher priced Cou-
rier Dual Standard model. And the
company, who counted on the fact
that no one would ever discover these
commands, is now struggling to es-
tablish that an AT command anyone
can enter in their terminal program,
consisting of precisely 20 charac-
ters, is actually copyrighted infor-
mation and any software that auto-
matically sends these charac-
ters to the modem is actually
infringing their copyright to
their ROM code. Undoubt-
edly, they can find an army
of lawyers somewhere to
agree with them, and an-
other army to dis-
pute the case > /J
from the other
side. £ - .
Is there no limit
to copyright?
Can every bit,
pixel, charac-
ter, jot and tittle,
not only be con-
trolled in the cop-
ies made, but in every aspect
of its use and application thereafter?
Where will it end? E-mail messages?
E-mail message fragments? Have I
stolen from Bruce Sterling in men-
tioning his bit and pixel with a price
tag metaphor? NAPLPS frames?
NAPLPS fonts? NAPLPS graphic
primitives? Pixels?
a copy, and created works
do much more than sim-
ply inform, the “lines”
are quite likely in
different places.
There must be
some defined lim-
its on what an au-
thor can dictate
once he has re-
leased his work
to this online
world - however in-
tricately he words
the release.
Without it, we rap-
idly approach a situ-
ation where everyone
can claim some own-
ership of everything
created, and we
will become mired
in a more or less
constant state of
legal frenzy - with
everyone online a
lawbreaker. In such
an environment, any-
one who becomes suc-
cess- ful at anything then auto-
matically becomes the target of a
lawsuit by the telepathetic. And
the impetus then to do anything
substantive goes away - gutting
the intent of the original copyright
law.
We actually need either some law-
suits or some legislation in
cyberspace. Despite the fact that our
legal system has grown too expen-
sive for anyone to deal with doesn’t
alleviate the need for definition. I
disagree with those who insist that
adequate case law exists in non-
online arenas. Copyright law at its
heart is an exercise in “drawing
lines.” The online world is actually
quite different and while copyright
law should hold generally, we des-
perately need to redefine how fair
use applies to a very different world
where the technology of making cop-
ies is indeed very different. In a
world where a few keystrokes makes
Until we do obtain some more rig-
orous definitions, the grace period
enjoyed online thus far with re-
gards to copyright is clearly over.
Virtually everything and every-
one is in open season. The act of
using a modem itself may be a
copyright violation .... subject to the
fearful and agonized reasoning of
the telepathetic.
Jack Rickard
Boardwatch - December 1992
7
LETTERS
Address correspondence to LET-
TERS, Boardwatch Magazine, 7586
West Jewell Ave., Suite 200, Lake-
wood, CO 80232 or by e-mail to
letters@boardwatch.com.
Dear Jack,
I just picked up a copy of the October
issue and there are a couple of
addendums I would like to make to
Bill Gram-Reefer’s article about
“Host Software with an Attitude.” A
couple of changes have been made
since Bill wrote the article.
To begin with, the name has
changed. While working on the pro-
gram another softwaer (some sort
of math problem apparently) was
released with the name of MILO. To
avoid any conflicts Colen and I de-
cided to change the name to “Public
Address.”
Second, Colen has recently moved
so the phone number included in
the file is now invalid. His new
number is ( 503 ) 687 - 0058 . We are
also offering a fidonet ECHO on the
project which people can carry if
they wish - please contact Colen for
more information.
Finally, I would just like it known
that interested parties can contact
me via InterNet since AOL now has
internet access. My internet address
is GOberfield@aol.com.
Thanks for your time, and I hope we
didn’t cause too many problems
(grin).
Greg Oberfield.
Princeton, New Jersey
Dear Jack:
Now see what you gone and done?
It’s EVERYWHERE... that G word.
It was used in BOTH conventions
keynote speeches. It’s on billboards
everywhere. Some even “G- Worded”
you at the completion of your speech
at ONE BBSCON.
All your fault.
Don Inglehart, Sysop
Happy Trails BBS
Orange California.
Dear Don:
I can hardly take credit for all of it,
but I do appreciate the outpouring of
support from so many quarters on
this issue. Yes, I was blatantly G-
worded at ONE BBSCON - and it
couldn't have been the speech.
Jack Rickard
Dear Jack:
We’ve been getting BoardWatch for
about a year, and I love it!
(Rampaging digressions about God
and all - my personal opinion is that
the spritiual “oomph” has gone out
of traditional churches in America,
and is soaking into other areas: 12-
step programs, Gaia/Goddess
groups, you name it.)
But! Sometimes I just have to
scream. Your magazine is full of
sincere agonizing over exactly how
many BBS’s can fit on the head of a
pin: that is to say, MDSDOS and its
cousins. Do we go multi-node, or
multi-line? Maybe both, with a LAN
tangling them together? Or maybe
we’ll run a time-slicing BBS under
Windows under OS/2? But then how
will I put locks on the doors in my
windows? Et cetera.
Unix is here. You all know that. It’s
even cheap ($99 for Coherent, for
example, from Mark Williams Co.,
( 708 ) 291 - 6700 , and no, I don’t work
for them!) and installable by mere
mortals. It is the perfect platform
for BBS’s: multi-user, multi-task-
ing, and no need for “doors”. Yet the
myth seems to persist that “there
aren’t any applications for Unix”, or
Boardwatch Magazine
ISSN:1 054-2760
Volume VI, Issue 10
December, 1992
Copyright 1992 Jack Rickard
All Rights Reserved
E ditQr/PgfrliSher
Jack Rickard
Contributing Writers
Bill Gram-Reefer
Lance Rose
Thom Foulks
J. Scott Christianson
Dan Wendling
Advertising -Sales
Charlie Moore
gr a phi cs Design
Charlie Moore
Subscriptions/Circulation
Rob King
Technical Director
Gary Funk
gfunk@boardwatch.com
Newsstand Circulation
Martin L. Shafkowitz
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5970 South Vivian Street
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(303)973-6038 Editorial
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Electronic Mail
Internet:
jack.rickard@boardwatch.com
FidoNet: 1 : 104/555
“it’s too hard to use”, “too big for my
hard disk”, and so on.
I suggest that the general reluc-
tance to consider Unix for BBS’s is
simpler; to wit: “My favorite appli-
cation runs on MSDOS. Therefore
all of my applications must run on
MSDOS.” Quod erat demonmsdos.
8 Boardwatch - December 1992
Thanks for listening; keep up the
good work!
Charles Roth
Charles:
There are three recurring myths in
BBS land:
1. X.25 Networks
2. DESQview
3. Unix.
All have some modest application ,
and Tve seen more BBS operators
get in trouble with these three things
than everything else combined.
Nonetheless , hope springs eternal.
As the hardware grows more power-
ful, we are going through yet an-
other re-examination of both
DESQview and UNIX. The tempta-
tion is almost overpowering , but I
suspect the result will be as before .
For BBS operators, the allure of
UNIX is of course the multitasking
multiuser aspect. The overhead of
such an all purpose operating sys-
tem that accomplishes these two
things is such that it virtually dis-
qualifies itself. When UNIX
afficionados discuss UNIX as a
multiuser platform, they are visual-
izing a machine running processes
at the behest of callers who are en-
gaged in “transaction level” commu-
nications with the host. Writing
messages. Providing input to pro-
grams. Viewing results produced by
resident programs. Sure, you can do
16 or 20 lines of people reading and
writing messages on a Unix ma-
chine.
When BBS operators talk about
multiple lines, they are talking about
something quite different. They are
picturing 20 lines with all of them
full of callers sucking files off the
hard drive at the maximum achiev-
able rate - today 14.4kbps. Down-
loading files is still the main sport
on public bu lletin boards. Even mail
is moving “offline” as callers use
offline mail readers to do their
“transaction level” processing and
the mail itself is downloaded as a
file. A HOT 486 machine with Unix
will fall to its knees and bark like a
dog with six or seven simultaneous
lines sucking files at high speed.
You could perhaps run a LAN of
UNIX machines with four or five
lines on each 486 to some success.
But the installation and operation
of a LAN made up of Unix servers is
a dauntingly complex task at this
point. This is another situation
where I would sooner try to suck
start an Oldsmobile through the
tailpipe.
But for some types of information
service, I agree Unix is emerging
with some application. Largely due
to Internet connection issues, Unix
is shaping up as the ultimate con-
nection machine. It is enormously
powerful in the variety of things you
can do, and flexible to a fault. With
some of the advanced BBS front
ends we're seeing now such as
COCONET, TEAMate, andZMAX
XCHANGE, the savageness of the
Unix command line is finally being
tamed with very attractive inter-
faces. So for some applications,
UNIX is finding legs in the general
BBS community. Mark Williams
COHERENT efforts to bring low
cost UNIX to the masses is particu-
larly interesting. I think you can
count on slightly increased coverage
of these technologies in future issues
of Boardwatch.
Jack Rickard
Dear Jack:
As an author by trade, sometime
literary critic, and BOARDWATCH
subscriber, let me be the first to
“celebrate” Salman Rushdie within
your earshot. By no stretch of the
imagination is Salman Rushdie a
“second-rate hack.” His novel THE
SATANIC VERSES is quite a good
book, graceful, imaginative and very
well-written. It’s true that many
people are anxious to kill Rushdie
for writing this novel, but this con-
troversy should not obscure his
manifest first-rate abilities as an
author.
Sincerely,
Bruce Sterling
braces® well . sf . ca . us
D ear Bruce:
These are necessarily subjective is-
sues. I read through the first 60
pages of The Satanic Verses and
confess I did not find it sufficiently
interesting to finish the book. My
point was that the book received
much wider public exposure by vir-
tue of the controversy than it would
have achieved on its own merits. I
could certainly be wrong and will
happily defer to your greater famil-
iarity with this genre. Tm not only
not a literary critic, Tm so
undiscerning as to read the backs of
cereal boxes and try to decode sub-
liminal messages from the patterns
printed on toilet paper.
I did however finish your own latest
efforts - The Hacker Crackdown -
Law and Disorder on the Elec-
tronic Frontier . Frankly, I had
feared the worst from this book as
yet another publication from an in-
stant expert on a hot topic. But it not
only survived the 60 page test, I was
stunned at the thorough level of both
research and insight in this book. I
learned a great deal I didn't know
about Operation Sundevil and the
events and issues surrounding it.
More, your graphic command of the
language and writing style is suffi-
ciently readable to evoke my per-
sonal envy - in waves. Sign me up for
the fan club.
Jack Rickard
Dear Mr. Rickard:
After months of eager anticipation
( and attempting to be one of the first
to send in my ballot! ), I was thrilled
Boardwatch - December 1992 9
to see that my favorite BBS, GLIB -
The Gay and Lesbian Information
Bureau, had placed in the top ten of
Boardwatch Magazine’s Top 100
Bulletin Boards. After reading your
description of GLIB, however, I feel
compelled to write and “set the record
straight” so to speak.
As a contributing member of GLIB
for over two years, and also a mem-
ber of the straight/heterosexual com-
munity, I need to let you know that
the description of GLIB as “a system
strictly for gays and lesbians” is
simply untrue. GLIB identifies it-
self as “an on-line information, com-
munications, and support service
for members of the lesbian, gay, and
bisexual community, as well as oth-
ers interested in and affirmative of
those orientations. GLIB member-
ship is open to any adult - regardless
of their sexual orientation - who is
supportive of the gay, lesbian, and
bi community.” My membership in
GLIB is proof that this is true.
From the very first time I logged
into GLIB through today, I have
continually felt accepted and wel-
come as a member of the GLIB fam-
ily. I am open online about my not
being gay, but the fact that I am a
heterosexual woman is secondary
to the fact that I am supportive and
care about my GLIB friends, as they
are about me. I cannot speak for all
of GLIB’s heterosexual members -
and there are others - but my expe-
rience with GLIB continues to be
rewarding, entertaining, fun, infor-
mative, encouraging, emotional,
educational, and much more - in
short, all the things I look for in any
group of which I am a part.
With it’s widely-varied message
bases, multi-line public and private
real-time conference areas, myriad
of wonderful information files, online
magazines, games, and much, much
more, I would be saddened if anyone
missed out on all that GLIB has to
offer because they mistakenly
thought GLIB “didn’t allow hetero-
sexuals.” It’s just not true. There are
so many unnecessary dividing lines
between people these days - please
let your readers know that GLIB is
not one of them.
Sincerely;
Andrea M. Kojan
Arlington, Virginia
Dear Andrea:
WelU now that you've come out of the
closet as a straight , heterosexual
member , I would say you've clari-
fied the matter more eloquently than
I possibly ever could. My apologies
to anyone who likewise took excep-
tion to my characterization of this
system.
GLIB is probably a good example of
why I deal with this issue in the
fashion I do. I'm not gay, don't un-
derstand it, and have a terrifyingly
small degree of interest in or famil-
iarity with the whole topic. But Jon
Larimore, sysop of this excellent
bulletin board, has been an acquain-
tance and associate for nearly four
years I guess. He's never been gay at
me, although generally of good hu-
mor, and has always been ready
and eager to experiment with online
technology - about the only qualifi-
cation necessary for a good recep-
tion around our offices.
As it so happens, GLIB is currently
beta testing a product we are devel-
oping to link the TBBS message
base with Internet mail - allowing
GLIB ca llers to correspond with vir-
tually any e-mail system worldwide.
Jon has been consistently cheerful
and supportive in testing what has
been some pretty badly broken soft-
ware - our Personal Internet Mail
Processor (PIMP) for TBBS. And as
a result of his efforts, at no small
ongoing risk to the operation of
GLIB , a num ber of pieces of “ bro-
ken " have become whole. Today,
GLIB callers are passing mail about
the globe from this single BBS pretty
handily from what I understand. It
would have indeed been unfortu-
nate if some “ unnecessary dividing
line " had prevented this collabora-
tion - largely proving your point.
Jack Rickard
Dear Jack:
Just a quick note to compliment
you, Phil Becker, and your team
spearheaded by Peg Coniglio on the
success of ONE BBSCON. I’m sorry
for the delay in sharing our con-
gratulations, but we began a move
to new offices the day after our
return from Denver.
The Business BBS appreciated the
opportunity of participating in ONE
BBSCON as both vendors and
speakers. As a vendor, I found that
the show was successful on many
levels. We enjoyed meeting some of
the major sysops from around the
country. The show provided a great
opportunity to make contact with
and get feedback from corporate
and individual online service users.
We also took advantage of the op-
portunity to meet face to face with
several third party vendors with
whom we have been working. Using
the technology is great, but it’s no
substitute for matchin a face with a
voice and a name! Needless to say,
we’ll be back.
Based on the enthusiastic conver-
sations and feedback following my
presentation, it seems that there
was more interest in the BBS as a
service bureau than even I had an-
ticipated. Both my partner, Susan
Blook, and I would appreciate being
considered as speakers for next
year’s show.
In closing, we would like to compli-
ment ONE, INc. on its choice of
Director in Peg Coniglio. Susan, who
managed our participation in ONE
BBSCON, foudn Peg to be one of the
best show Directors going. Peg was
helpful at every turn, professional,
and always approached situations
with a smile. We’re sure that her
efforts significantly contributed to
10 Boaf'dwatch - December 1992
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the shows success for both vendors
and participants.
Thanks again, on behalf of ourselves
and the industry, for standing by
your guns, vis-a-vis the COMDEX
folks and for pulling together such a
successful, professional event.
Sincerely,
Jim Appleby
President, The Business BBS
Jim:
I'm pleased you found ONE
BBSCON useful and enjoyable. We
are currently working on something
for 1993 that I think will top it
significantly. I'm pretty excited about
it anyway. As soon as we have the
site and date nailed down , we will
be issuing a call for papers.
Peg Coniglio , and the people at
Hoffman and Associates that helped
put it together , are certainly a big
part of why it worked. They'll all be
back with us next year and I think
we can up the level of the event yet a
bit more.
Jack Rickard
Dear Jack:
I bought my first copy of Board watch
recently. Native American issues
interest me, and I use my modem to
call Bulletin Boards, so naturally I
was attracted to the colorful, full-
cover photograph on your October
1992 issue.
When I looked for the “feature ar-
ticle”, I was dismayed to find less
than a page of poorly-written infor-
mation containing only two tele-
phone numbers. I felt cheated, but
thought perhaps this may have been
an uncharacteristic accident.
I read the other articles, and they
were moderately good. Then I hit
the “letters” section, and everything
became clear. There I found an ar-
rogant, right-wing editor who dis-
plays his faith in God like a prosti-
tute wears make-up. Small wonder
at the gaudy, deceptive cover...
Thanks for “flaming” your politics
and religious attitude. Were it not
for that, I might have bought
Boardwatch again. I won’t now, since
I certainly wouldn’t want someone
like you to profit from my business.
Brian Freeman
Atlanta Georgia
Dear Brian:
No accident Brian. We put a lot of
thought and work each month into
making it poorly written and riddled
with arrogance and makeup. None-
theless , Fm heartbroken that you
feel cheated and Fm sending you a
check for $3.95 to make it right.
That way I won't have profited from
u your business." Since we're com-
pletely sold out of that particular
issue (the gaudy, deceptive cover no
doubt) and have less than a half-
dozen copies left here at the office ,
please return it. We need it and are
still getting requests for this issue.
Not that it will do any good. I would
note that unfortunately you WILL
in all probability buy another one.
We seem to attract this little group of
hate mongers who actually read
more avidly than normal people.
I've got a guy up in Maine who sends
a vile , really horrible hate letter ev-
ery year with a renewal check. Has
every year we've published since
1987. 1 don't get it, but its part of life
at Boardwatch.
You see the real challenge in a world
where everyone seems to get about
60 pounds of mail a day, is to get
read at all. There's so much in print,
that people that really don't like
what we do simply put us in the
trash with the rest of the poundage
and we never hear from them. You
put enough venom in your letter to
show your skirt. I doubt you'll miss
an issue, as much as I'd like you to.
My $3. 95 will be back before I can do
another issue. I've gone through this
before and its like a bad penny.
Jack Rickard
Dear Jack:
Lots of water has gone over the dam
since the first Sputnik launch and
ONE BBSCON for me, ( and the rest
of the world!).
In the late 50’s I was “commo Chief’
for a MASH type Army Hospital.
Sputnik had just went up and we
were fascinated with the prospect of
picking up the radio beacon. We had
the right frequencies but were un-
successful in receiving it. Instead
we discovered some strange signals
which were identified as Radio
Teletype (RTTY). After a little re-
search, some technical expediency
and adaptations of a field teletype
machine we were copying UPI and
AP.
WTiat an exciting discovery! Soon
we were old pros at this state of the
art news/text transmission stuff. We
then found we could stop the ma-
chine after a “story” and add our
own credible journalism. By this
time, (being in the field supporting
a large maneuver) we had created
an “unofficial” local customer base.
We had created and were now fill-
ing a need. Our mixture of real and
fabricated “news” was quite profes-
sional. Some of the “writers” on my
“staff’ were very creative.
Some gems come to mind: “CON-
GRESS APPROVES UNPREC-
EDENTED MILITARY PAY HIKE.
STARTING XXXXX US. SOL-
DIERS WILL BE PAID ON PAR
WITH CIVILIAN INDUSTRY.”
“DATELINE WASHINGTON, D.C.
- TODAY THE SECRETARY OF
THE ARMY ANNOUNCED THAT
ALL ACTIVE DUTY MEMBERS
WILL BE GIVEN THE OPTION
OF IMMEDIATE DISCHARGE
UNDER HONORABLE CONDI-
72 Boardwatch - December 1992
TIONS UPON WRITTEN RE-
QUEST AND EFFECTIVE
WITHIN 60 DAYS.” - and other
such press stoppers.
Not much time had passed when I
heard from our Colonel. He “sug-
gested” that we redirect our techni-
cal and artistic efforts back more in
line with our job descriptions and
restore the equipment to its intended
use. I was out of the Off-line Misin-
formation System business.
I didn’t get the “early out” but after
finishing my tour, I embarked full
force into the Space Age. In the
thirty some years since, I have
worked as an engineer on many
major US space and Military
projects; Tiros, Nimbus, Gemini,
Apollo, Viking, F- 14/Phoenix, MX
and Navy Standard.
Over the years computers were just
“tools” to me and I was generally
ignorant of “BBSing” and the wide
world of OIS. Early this year I re-
newed an old friendship with a fel-
low engineer. He was into design-
ing modems. My interest was ig-
nited. Soon I was on-line and hav-
ing the time of my life discovering
what you folks have been up to
these many years.
August 92 found me at ONE
BBSCON. I was among my people.
You guys and gals are the early
aviators and “ham” radio operators
of the 20s and 30s. What an exciting
three days I had. It tried to make
every session, talked to every ven-
dor at least twice, bought nearly
every book, subscribed to
Boardwatch for two years, bought
my software (TBBS) and got on the
airplane home with at least thirty
pounds more baggage than I came
with.
I had the great pleasure of meeting
and listening to many of the BBS
pioneers. I am “in” folks! On Nov 1
I’ll be up and running a specialty
board: Friendly Agricultural Re-
sources Management Nework,
FARM Net USA from Ventura Cali-
fornia at (805)339-0945.
This is the perfect answer to a four
year quest for a high tech product or
service to bring to friends and rela-
tives (and others) who farm and
ranch for a living. The possibilities
are staggering.
I’d like to offer the industry a “bor-
rowed” slogan for the 90s; “Coopera-
tion not Competition.”
I called Dakota BBS (Boardwatch
Oct. ) what a beautiful, clean, snappy
and useful board. I wish them great
success. Incidentally, Rapid City is
one of my boyhood hometowns.
In closing; Jack I too love god, I visit
with him each morning and many
times through the day. He answers
back frequently.
Love your work with Boardwatch.
Phil’s and your two co-sessions at
ONE BBSCON were definitely from
the heart and right on.
Oh yes! I promise the users ofFARM
Net USA that I will not be dissemi-
nating spurious and fabricated in-
formation, even though I was in-
volved with the early “MASH OMS”
in 1958.
Warmest regards to you and your
staff.
Bob Davis
Ventura, California.
Bob:
Well y no refund for you then. Seri-
ously, I share your excitement and
find your comparison of the people
at ONE BBSCON to the pioneers of
aviation and radio quite close to my
own view of them. The story of your
travels through an age of technology
is fascinating and supports a theme
I tell, but I sometimes think no one
believes. The people that seem drawn
to this medium tend to have ex-
tremely varied backgrounds and
experiences similarly fascinating to
your own. And while the modem
channel does allow some communi-
cation, it is not always broad enough
to convey the richness of the experi-
ence of the participants. Again, thou-
sands of people working alone in
basements.
ONE BBSCON was exciting because
for the first time, a critical mass of
them came to the same place at the
same time and saw each other as
people rather than names at the end
of messages. Knowing they num-
bered in the millions, it was the first
time they had ever SEEN a scant
thousand in one place. And the re-
sult was explosive. We won't know
for months what impact it actually
will have.
Again, your story is fascinating and
we appreciate you sharing it with
our readers. FARM Net USA sounds
fascinating. Please keep us posted
with your progress.
73
Jack Rickard
TELEBITS
RUMORS AND TRIVIA
Playboy Magazine, flush from vic-
tory in their out-of-court settlement
with Event Horizons, is planning
their own online service. But they
also appear to like the income de-
rived from mauling bulletin boards
through the legal mill. Rumor has it
they have a hit list of systems carry-
ing Playboy images and are NOT
just asking that they be removed.
George Frena’s Techs
Wharehouse in Florida (904)268-
7459 is rumored to have been hit
with a subpoena for evidence as
well as a filed complaint without
any prior warning. Some believe
Playboy has developed a BBS “hit
list” and plan making BBS lawsuits
a regular sideline business.
Boardwatch - December 1992 13
Prodigy continues to amass a fairly
amazing concentration of users. The
service is now up to 80,000 mes-
sages daily - with some 20,000 fall-
ing in a bulletin board they terms
ARTS CLUB. The Arts Club fea-
tures some 24 message conferences
on various cultural/media items
averaging over 800 messages each
daily. Prodigy Services Co., 445
Hamilton Ave., White Plains, NY
10601; (914)993-8892
MEMORY CARD SLOTS -
AN EMERGING
TECHNOLOGY
One emerging technology you will
likely hear a lot more about over the
next year or so is the Personal
Computer Memory Card Inter-
national Association (PCMCIA)
standard for a slotted receptacle
originally intended for plug-in
memory cards for notebook comput-
ers.
The most recent iteration of this 68-
pin connector standard is titled
PCMCIA II and it describes a de-
vice 54.0 by 85.6 mm (2.1 by 3.5
inches - about the size of a credit
card) and 5 mm thick (1/5 of an
inch). More importantly, it expands
the definition to include devices be-
yond simple memory and software
applications. AT&T, for example, is
currently selling a 14.4kbps V.32bis
modem titled the KeepInTouch
card and Data Race plans a similar
modem introduction by year’s end.
Megahertz Corporation has an-
nounced the Megahertz CC3 144FM
Notebook FAX/Modem for the
PCMCIA II slot featuring 14.4 kbps
data and fax speeds. This spells the
end of proprietary and correspond-
ingly pricey internal modems for
laptops. Meanwhile, Xircom is de-
veloping an Ethernet adapter for
PCMCIA.
The orginal memory application is
still going strong. Flash memory is
a type of non-volatile RAM that
operates much like a floppy. Intel
has introduced a 20 MB model for
$600. Ultimately, as the price of
these credit card sized memory
modules comes down, these
PCMCIA cards promise to be the
next step in portable media. For
many applications, the venerable
3.5-inch floppy disk technology,
stalled out by the overwhelming
number of installed units at 1.44
MB, provides inadequate capacity
to transfer desktop publishing docu-
ments and other largish data sets.
PCMCIA cards in 2.5MB, 5MB,
10MB, and 20MB offer an option -
albeit currently an expensive one.
While currently offering maximum
advantage to laptop, notebook, and
sub-notebook models where weight
and size are crucial, as it becomes
ubiquitous in this arena the move
into standard desktop hardware is
inevitable. The standard is already
strong enough that we would not
consider purchasing a laptop com-
puter without one, and preferably
two of these slots. Keep an eye on
this technology.
OXFORD ENGLISH
DICTIONARY ON CD-ROM
The definitive dictionary of all time
has to be the Oxford English Dictio-
nary. Originally compiled in 1928,
this dictionary consisted of ten vol-
umes. A new edition was issued in
1989 and the second edition of this
dictionary consists of twenty vol-
umes weighing in at a stout 137
pounds of paper and costs over
$2500. It lists 615,500 entries with
some definitions as long as 60,000
words. The total is over sixty mil-
lion words in length and includes
nearly two and a half million quota-
tions.
Oxford University Press has issued
the latest work on CD-ROM titled
the OED2 CD-ROM At $895, the
title is probably the ultimate appli-
cation for CD technology. It’s a couple
of thousand dollars cheaper than
the paper version, and actually of-
fers more value with some power-
ful, if slightly awkward search soft-
ware allowing searches and com-
parisons very nearly impossible to
perform on the printed set. The pro-
gram requires 4MB of RAM and
Microsoft Windows 3.0 Oxford Uni-
versity Press, Electronic Publish-
ing, 200 Madison Ave., New York,
NY 10016; (800)334-4249 or
(212)679-7300 voice.
NATIONWIDE PHONE
BOOK ON CD-ROM
Directory assistance data has been
available for some time from the
local Bell telephone companies on
CD-ROM. But the price has been
ridiculously high - often as much as
$5000 making the product essen-
tially unavailable to all but those
needing it most desperately. The
telcos were loathe to make it widely
available because it might decrease
use of their own directory assis-
tance program - which has gone far
beyond it’s original “cost recovery”
status to becoming an enormous
profit center.
But recent court decisions have de-
clared the white pages information
produced by telephone companies
as not protected by copyright. As a
result, our access to this informa-
tion should improve.
ProCD, Inc. has introduced a rea-
sonably priced national telephone
directory on CD-ROM. The product
is titled ProPhone - National Edi-
tion . The product was announced
September 10 with an introductory
price of $179. But the company
planned to make it available after
September 30 at $349. Our experi-
ence has been that such stepup pric-
ing doesn’t usually hold, but it’s
possible.
ProPhone comes on three CD-ROMs
- one for residences east of the Mis-
sissippi River, one for those west,
and a third CD containing business
14 Boardwatch - December 1992
listings. The data is compressed and
an accompanying software program
perform s searches for name or name
fragments with delimiters for ad-
dress, city, state, zip, and area code.
The search is actually quite fast.
The program offers some interest-
ing features, most notably a built in
phone dialer. After performing a
search, you can press a key and it
will dial the number on screen. This
is a bit like having a dialing direc-
tory with 80% of the population
already loaded into it. You can also
print out a listing to a printer. The
company claims you are buying the
data and own it. They do have some
restrictions on its use that are pretty
interesting. You can use it on a
“contiguous” network, but they ap-
pear deathly afraid of any online
use - pretty much limiting its use-
fulness for bulletin boards if their
restrictions are at all enforceable.
The business listings contain some
7 million business entries, which
the company claims is virtually all
of them. This brings up an interest-
ing possibility. While it wouldn’t be
foolproof, if you were trying to come
up with a unique name for a busi-
ness, you might do a search to find
out if AAA Computers was really as
unique as you thought it was. Obvi-
ous conflicts would turn up rather
quickly, at no search fee.
The residential listings are previ-
ously published white page entries
and contain no unpublished num-
bers. The program documentation
notes that this is an inexact art as
the listings for people in some areas
of the country turn over as much as
25% annually.
The real attraction to this program
is somewhat non-ob vious. After we
got it up and running, it seemed like
everyone here in the office had some-
one from their past that they won-
dered what ever happened to
With this ProPhone, we were all
entering names and searching for
lost friends. Results were mixed. If
they had a name like Mongeon or
Percibel it worked quite well. A
Johnson was hopeless. And there
were anomalies. Searching for ev-
ery Rickard in Cape Girardeau
Missouri, didn’t turn up anything
at all. Since the town is reeking with
them, I found this a little unlikely,
until I found that for some reason
Cape Girardeau was listed as CPE
GIRARDEAU. So it can take some
creative experimentation to get this
program to sing for you. But it is a
lot of fun. ProCD New Media Pub-
lishing, 8 Doaks Lane, Little Har-
bor, Marblehead, MA 01945;
(617)631-9200 voice; (617)631-
0810 fax.
WORKS OF LITERATURE
CD-ROM OFFERS 2334
TITLES -$39.95
Walnut Creek CD ROM, the group
that offers the Simtel 20 MSDOS
CD ROM for just $24.95 is working
some new ground in establishing
lower prices for CD ROM data col-
lections. Their latest offering is titled
Desktop Library and features
2334 works of literature at $39.95.
The disk comprises a complete li-
brary of the best novels, short sto-
ries, plays, poems, and reference
materials ever written. All files are
ASCII text compatible with virtu-
ally any computer platform. The
company claims it is the largest
collection of literature ever pub-
lished on CD-ROM. The CD includes
the complete works of
Shakespeare, the complete collec-
tion of Sherlock Holmes stories,
the complete text of the Bible, the
Koran, dictionaries, speeches, his-
torical documents, Supreme Court
decisions, and thousands of Internet
text files. Walnut Creek CDROM,
1547 Palos Verdes Mall, Suite 260,
Walnut Creek, CA 94596; (800)786-
9907 voice; (510)947-5996 interna-
tional; (510)947-1644 fax.
ITALIAN VERSION OF
GALACTICOMM’S MAJOR
BBS NOW AVAILABLE
Studio 5 Liguria Servizi di
Informatica of Albenga Italy has
announced an all Italian version of
Galacticomm’s MAJOR BBS soft-
ware product. The company has
translated all prompts and the
manual of this multiline BBS pack-
age to Italian and title the product
SistemaTelematico
GALACTICOMM. They offer the
Edizione Standard, the Edizione
Menu Manager, and the Edizione
Servizi di Libreria along with Servizi
Dial Out and other add-on prod-
ucts. They also invite any third party
developers of add-on products to
contact them regarding marketing
agreements in Italy. Studio 5 Liguria
s.r.l. Servizi di Informatica, 17031
Albenga (Sv), Via Pap Giovanni
XXIII, 162/1; 0182-540200 voice;
0182-543977 fax; 0182-554965
BBS.
ATT 14.4KBPS CHIPSET
AT&T Microelectronics has an-
nounced a low-power modem chip
set for use with laptop computers.
The new V.32bis Data Pump Chip
Set performs both fax and data
functions at up to 14,400 bps and
will be available during the first
quarter of 1993 at $79 in quantities
of 10,000. (800)372-2447.
A DAY IN COURT FOR
HAYES OVER ESCAPE
SEQUENCE
The legal imbroglio surrounding
Hayes Microcomputer Products’
advertising campaign dealing with
escape sequences is beginning to
clear a bit, although with mixed
results. Recall that Hayes had run a
ticking time bomb advertisement to
call attention to the fact that some
modem manufacturers were using
Boardwatch - December 1992 15
escape sequences of their own de-
sign rather than licensing the
Heatherington “improved escape
sequence with guard time” from
Hayes. Most notably the TIES es-
cape sequence. Hayes offered a test
kit that would cause these modems
to escape to command mode if you
attempted to transfer the file.
Sierra Semiconductor Corporation
and Multi-Tech Systems Inc. had
each filed suit seeking to stop the
ads and stop Hayes from offering a
test kit that caused modems using
the competing Time Independent
Escape Sequence (TIES) to escape
to command mode.
The results were a bit mixed. Hayes
was enjoined from using the ticking
time bomb metaphor and also en-
joined from implying that data could
actually be damaged or destroyed.
But the court upheld Hayes’ right to
offer the test kit and compare the
effectiveness of the TIES escape
sequence to the Hayes patent. As a
result, Hayes has resumed adver-
tisement and offers a slightly rede-
signed version of the test program.
The test program simply contains
TIES escape sequences that DO
cause the modems to escape to com-
mand mode. And while these es-
cape sequences could cause prob-
lems if found in user data (the file
simply would escape to command
mode during transmission - abort-
ing the transfer), the odds of its
occuring there are extremely re-
mote. Both sides of the dispute
claimed victory.
The test kit is available by request
or for download from the Hayes
support board at 800-US HAYES.
Hayes Microcomputer Products, Inc.
PO Box 105203, Atlanta, GA 30348;
(404)840-9200.
U.S. ROBOTICS
SPORTSTER 14400 -AN
UNINTENDED BARGAIN
Modem manufacturer U.S. Robot-
ics has long offered two classes of
modems, the Courier and the
Sportster lines. Courier is the top
of the line modem and within the
BBS community is considered one
of the top models available. Sportster
modems were typically the ugly little
brother - at a much more economi-
cal price.
The company recently released some
new Sportster models that have an
allure. The Sportster 14000 and
Sportster 14000 with Fax offer
CCITT V.32bis connections at
14,400 bps, V.42 and V.42bis error
correction and compression,
Microcom Networking Protocol
(MNP) level 5 compatibility, and in
the case of the fax model - 9600 bps
fax. The modems are listed at $519
and $549 respectively - actually not
terribly competitive in the economy
class for modems with this func-
tionality. But Sportsters are almost
designed to be discounted and these
are available on the street at around
$290 which is quite competitive.
The main difference between the
Sportster models and the Courier
models in this case is the case. The
Courier features a very nice black
plastic case suitable for framing.
The Sportster looks like nothing so
much as a Radio Shack home
intercomm. You are almost drawn
to press a switch, lean over to speak
into it, and ask mom for some juice
with this thing.
But under the hood lies more mo-
dem than even U.S. Robotics appar-
ently intended. The modem
motherboard within is not similar
to the $1295 Courier Dual Stan-
dard, it actually IS the Courier
Dual Standard motherboard. The
Courier Dual Standard of course, in
addition to the 14.4kbps V.32bis
mode, features a 16.8kbps propri-
etary HST (High Speed Technol-
ogy) mode, a really nice case, an
ASL mode, and a list price of $1295.
We obtained data transfer rates as
high as 1885 cps with this top of the
line model and reviewed it very
favorably in our October issue.
The reasons for this are fairly un-
derstandable. It is actually cheaper
to manufacture lots of a single
motherboard than two different
motherboards. And by repackaging
U.S. Robotics Sportster 14.4 With Fax
16 Boardwatch - December 1992
Eight fines,
one compute*...
No
problem.
Introducing Wildcat! IM
The new ‘Intelligent Multi-Port’
version of WILDCAT! is a special release designed for BBS installa-
tions requiring up to 8 incoming lines on a single PC, with or without
LAN connectivity. Multiple PCs of 8 lines each can be connected in a
LAN setting, upto the maximum of250 nodes. WILDCAT! ‘IM’shares
all the features and functionality of the rest of the WILDCAT! product
line, while taking advantage of the most popular intelligent multi-port
serial cards in the industry, the DigiChannel COM/8i, PC/8e or PC/8i.
More Than Just 8 Lines
The eight-line per PC capabili-
ties of WILDCAT! IM are just the beginning. In a LAN setting you can
set up multiple 8-line systems combined with local connectivity for all
your network users. A 16 or even 32 line BBS now takes only a fraction
of the space required previously, and adds the convenience of local
LAN access.
Wildcat! IM Packages
WILDCAT! IM is only avail-
able in a 250 node configuration, and is priced at $799. A special
WILDCAT! IM+ package, which includes WILDCAT! IM software,
DESQview 386/QEMM and a DigiChannel COM/8i serial card and
cable, is package priced at $1 ,999.
Another breakthrough from
the programmers at MSI
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS:
COMPUTER
An 80386/33 is the minimum system
required for operation. As the number of
BBS lines and line speeds increase,
faster processing may be needed. An
80486 system will operate all eight lines at
full throughput, even with the newest
high-speed modems.
MEMORY
A minimum of 8MB of RAM is required.
To improve file access speed, additional
RAM can be utilized for virtual RAM
drives and disk cache.
MULTI-PORT BOARD
The WILDCAT! IM version is specifically
designed to operate with intelligent serial
port cards from Digi International, Inc.
The DigiChannel COM/8i, PC/8e or PC/8i
cards make use of on-board micropro-
cessor support for communication
activities.
MULTI-TASKING
The multi-tasking chores on a WILDCAT!
IM installation are handled by DESQview
386 from Quarterdeck Office Systems.
MUSTANG
SOFTWARE
INC.
See your local software dealer or call MSI
at 800-999-96 J 9 for product information.
Mustang Software, Inc.
P.O. Box 2264 Bakersfield, CA 93303
Boardwatch - December 1992 17
SYSOP MODEM DISCOUNT PROGRAMS
V.32 and V.32bis Modems
VENDOR
MODEL
LIST
SYSOP
BBS
VOICE
FAX
ATI Technologies
ATI V.32
$699
$350
416-756-4591
416-756-0718
None
Cardinal Technologies
9600V42 V.32
$699
$269
717-293-3074
7 17-293-3000
None
Computer Peripherals
Viva 9624e V.32
$349
$249
805-499-9646
805-499-5751
805-498-8306
Galaxy Networks
UFO V.32bis
$999
$299
None
818-998-7851
818-998-1758
GVC Technologies
FM-9696/144V V.32bis $689
$413
201-579-2380
201-579-3630
201-579-2702
GVC Technologies
SM-96V V.32
$599
$329
201-579-2380
201-579-3630
201-579-2702
Hayes Microcomputer
Ultra 144 V.32bis
$1199
$599
404-446-6336
404-840-9200
404-449-0087
Hayes Microcomputer
Optima 144+Fax
$499
$299
404-446-6336
404-840-9200
404-449-0087
Hayes Microcomputer
ISDN System Adapter
$1599
$799
404-446-6336
404-840-9200
404-449-0087
Image Communications Twincomm 9600 V.32
$299
$279
None
201-935-8880
201-935-6548
Intel Corporation
14.4EX V.32bis
$549
$269
503-645-6275
503-629-7000
503-228-9707
Intel Corporation
9600EX V.32
$599
$299
503-645-6275
503-629-7000
503-228-9707
Multi-Tech Systems
MT932BA V.32
$869
$435
612-785-9875
612-785-3500
612-785-9874
Multi-Tech Systems
MT1432BA V.32bis
$899
$450
612-785-9875
612-785-3500
612-785-9874
Practical Peripherals
PM14400FXSA V.32bis $549
$250
805-496-4445
818-706-0333
818-706-2474
Supra Corporation
SupraFAX V.32bis
$399
$249
503-967-2444
503-967-2400
503-967-2401
Supra Corporation
SupraFAX V.32
$299
$199
503-967-2444
503-967-2400
503-967-2401
Telebit Corporation
T3000 V.32bis
$949
$399
None
408-734-4333
408-734-3333
U.S. Robotics
HST/DS V.32bis
$1295
$449
708-982-5092
708-982-5010
None
Ven-Tel
EC96 V.32
$699
$439
408-922-0988
408-436-7400
408-436-7451
ZyXEL
U-1496 V.32bis
$799
$450
714-693-0762
714-693-0804
714-693-0705
ZyXEL
U-1496E V.32bis
$469
$299
714-693-0762
714-693-0804
714-693-0705
it in a downscale case and disabling
a few features, you can reach an
entirely different market segment
without a lot of retooling.
The difference in features is a func-
tion of the operating software held
in Read-Only-Memory ( ROM ) chips
on the modem motherboard. But on
a large number of early shipments
of the Sportster, the code is still in
the ROMs, and can be reactivated
with simple AT commands to give
the lightweight Sportster the
16.8Kbps mode that is the most
notable function of the Courier
power house. It does not appear to
add the ASL function.
To see if your model supports this,
enter the command ATI7 to display
the ROM version. At the bottom of
the display, you should see an entry
for SUPERVISOR VER4.1 or SU-
PERVISOR VER 4.2. It will also
list an OPTIONS V32 entry. If
your ROM indicates SUPERVI-
SOR VER 4.1, you win the USR
Sweepstakes. Enter the command
AT GW 03C6,22 GW 05CD,2F and
again enter ATI7. The options en-
try should now read OPTIONS
HST,V32. This means you can now
use the 16.8kbps HST mode. The
ATB1 command will turn it on. And
if you dial a BBS with a Courier
Dual Standard, you will get a 16800/
ARQ connect.
Currently shipping models of the
Sportster have a version 4.2 ROM
and the command doesn’t work.
Merry Christmas from U.S. Robot-
ics. Rumor has it there are some
very unhappy campers within USR
over this marketing faux pas. We
don’t get it. So some USR customers
got a good deal - that’s got to be
terrible PR right?
Apparently USR is determined to
turn it into a negative one way or
another. The company has issued a
fairly artless written IMPORTANT
WARNING TO BULLETIN
BOARD USERS quoting chapter
and verse of U.S. copyright law. We
produce the full text of this warning
here:
“ IMPORTANT WARNING TO
BULLETIN BOARD USERS:
It has recently come to our at -
tention that some bulletin board
operators and other third par-
ties have been improperly dis-
tributing copyrighted firmware
that will add USR’s proprietary
“HST” protocol to USR
“Sportster” modems without
having to compensate USR for
the conversion . Some of these
persons have further been tell-
ing customers that if such a con-
version is made , it will not ad-
versely affect the customer’s
right to warranty service from
USR .
USR has not authorized the dis-
18 Boardwatch - December 1992
semination of this firmware . The
Company considers any such at-
tempts to improperly incorpo-
rate copyrighted “HST” features
into non-HST modems to be a
clear infringement of USR’s
rights under Federal Copyright
Law. Persons contemplating
such action should be aware that
the Copyright Act of 1976 pro-
vides stiff remedies for acts of
copyright infringement, includ-
ing the impounding of all in-
fringing copies , monetary dam-
ages , special statutory damages,
costs , attorney fees , and even
potential criminal liability. 17
U.S.C. Secs. 502-506. USR will
take whatever steps it deems
necessary to protect its copyright
rights. In addition , USR’s war-
ranty will not extend to prod-
ucts that have been tampered
with in this manner.
Also , please note that it has also
come to our attention that ver-
sions of the firmware being dis-
seminated contain disguised
code (“Trojan Horse”) that may
inflict irreparable damage to
the hard drive of the computer
utilizing the programs.
We regret the necessity of hav-
ing to post this warning. Please
understand that USR has spent
considerable time , effort and
money to research and develop
the software embodied in its
products. Like any manufac-
turer , we cannot simply sit back
and tolerate attempts to misap-
propriate our copyrighted pro-
grams in this manner. U.S. Ro-
botics, Inc.”
We haven’t been able to locate any-
thing remotely resembling USR
firmware online. If it did exist, it
would be a copy of the ROM code in
the Dual Standard ROM and could
not conceivably even be run on an
80x86 microprocessor, much less
operate as a Trojan Horse. It would
be data that garage-shop pirates
would use to create unauthorized
copies of the ROM using an Electri-
cally Programmable Read Only
Memory (EPROM) programming
device. This would be put in the
Sportster to convert it to a Courier
Dual Standard. This would certainly
be copyright violation, and we can-
not condone it in any form. But it
disqualifies itself as a candidate for
a Trojan Horse program quite thor-
oughly.
The only file we can find online even
remotely relating to this warning is
a tiny 24KB program titled
USRPATCH.ZIP. It appears to
come from Johan Franzn of Twi-
light Garden BBS at 46-8-510-
50925 (FidoNet 2:201/258 ). The pro-
gram is apparently authored by
“Jeffe and Alex” who credit Henrik
Johansson with the discovery. It
appears to simply send the AT com-
mand previously described to the
modem from the DOS command
line. In this way, you can run the
program, and then your terminal
program, and not have to enter the
AT command at all each time you
use the modem.
We are thoroughly confused by U.S.
Robotics’ warning. And any attempt
to talk to anyone within the com-
pany leads to a lot of finger pointing
and referral toother telephone num-
bers in an essentially endless fash-
ion. First, the program does nothing
more than send the AT commands
to the modem and U.S. Robotics
“copyright” to AT commands of any
sort is openly questionable. Sec-
ondly, there is nothing we can find
wrong with this file, and the ques-
tion of a Trojan Horse program ap-
pears to be blatantly transparent
fear mongering of the worst sort. In
fact, the concept of a software pro-
gram causing “irreparable damage
to a hard drive mechanism is ludi-
crous. The most virulent viruses
and most damaging Trojan Horse
programs can only damage data on
hard disk drives - not the hard disk
drives themselves. This is officially
and totally utter nonsense. It was
undoubtedly drafted by a lawyer to
the ongoing chagrin and mortified
embarrassment of every technical
person within this fine company.
We understand their distress. And
we’ll shed no tears for anyone run-
ning garage shop EPROM mills that
might be prosecuted. But techni-
cally ridiculous warning messages
do nothing but call into question the
credibility of USR itself. Trying to
“scare” users into NOT entering
simple commands to make the mo-
dem they bought and paid for more
capable doesn’t even make sense
from a marketing standpoint. And
lost in the confusion is the fact that
their “Radio Shack Intercomm”
model is actually a dynamite little
modem on its own merits, at a rea-
sonable price. That a few of the
early buyers of this modem got a
good deal, can only work to U.S.
Robotics benefit - if they don’t work
too hard to turn it into a negative.
There were rumors of plans within
the company to introduce a BBS
operator discount price on this
Sportster model of as little as $279
- which would have been quite excit-
ing. The current imbroglio has prob-
ably delayed this move if indeed
those were the plans. U.S. Robotics,
Inc. 8100 North McCormick Blvd.,
Skokie, IL 60076; (708)982-5010
voice; (708)982-5092 BBS.
TELIX SOLD
Telix, a popular shareware termi-
nal communications program, has
been sold effective September 25th.
Jeff Woods, former Exis, Inc. Tech-
nical Support Manager purchased
the program source code, trademark,
and future sales for an undisclosed
sum. Woods is forming a new com-
pany to market the product titled
deltaComm Development, located
in Cary, North Carolina.
Telix is the second most popular
terminal program used on bulletin
boards around the country with
about a 20% market share - behind
Boardwatch - December 1992 19
Explore The World's Largest Network - The Internet!
You’ve read all about the Internet in Boardwatch, now try it for yourself!
/ Internet Telnet
/ Internet FTP
/ Internet Archie
/ Internet E-Mail
/ Internet Talk
/ Internet Relay Chat
3,000+ USENET Newsgroups (35+ MB per day)
* Easy to use menus * 2400bps in hundreds of locations
¥ Screen based interface * 9600bps in 30 locations
+ Become a full member in minutes * 14400bps in San Francisco, CA
FREE DEMO
Modem to 1-800-NET-HOLO for your closest access number!
Internet E-Mail 6 USENET For Your BBS! National Access For Your BBS!
If your BBS supports UUCP, you can have Internet E-mail and
USENET news at regular HoIoNet rates with a one-time setup fee
of $50.00.
Internet E-mail will allow your BBS to exchange mail with the
Internet world including most commericial services.
USENET news will give your BBS access to over 35 MB per day of
postings in 3,000+ newsgroups. Our screen-based editor makes it
easy to subscribe to only the newsgroups you want.
To subscribe, join HoIoNet as a regular member and then select
HoloUUCP from the "Account Information" menu.
Connect your BBS to HoIoNet and we can provide these features:
O HoloNet's dial-ups can provide national access for your BBS
O HoloNet's members will have direct access to your BBS
O Internet users will be able to telnet to your BBS
□ Place your BBS on HoIoNet and earn royalities
□ HoIoNet can do credit card billing for your BBS
□ HoloNet's equipment can be used to implement your BBS
□ HoIoNet can provide custom solutions for commerical BBSes
For more information, please contact us at 510-704-01 60 /voice.
HoloNef Membership Hnd Conned Rales
Service
Area
Speed (bps)
Cities
Off-Peak
Peak
Peak Periods
HoIoNet* 1
- using an access service listed below -
$2.00
$4.00
M-F 8am-5pmt
HoloPacket^
Berkeley, California
1200... 14400
1
$0.00
$0.00
M-F 8am-5pm PT+
San Francisco Bay Area
1200 ...14400
4
$0.50
$0.95
M-F 8am-5pm PT+
PSINet 5 ”
Class-A
300/1200/2400
30+
$0.95
$1.95
M-F 8am-6pm ET
Class-B
300/1200/2400 120+
$2.50
$6.00
M-F 8am-8pm ET
Class-96
9600
30
$2.95*
$3.95
M-F 8am-6pm ET
BT Tymnet™
U.S. only
1200/2400
850+
$3.75
$7.50
M-F 6am-7pmt
Internet
Global
.
-
$0.00
$0.00
-
HoIoNet membership is only $6.00 a month
which is applied towards your monthly bill.
Your connect charges are composed of your
HoIoNet charges plus the communications
surcharges for the access service you use. To
determine your access service, modem to
1-800-NET-HOLO to find your closest access
service number.
Data storage in excess 256K: $1.00/MB-month
Data transfer in excess of 1 MB/ hour: $1. 00/MB
off-peak, $2.00/MB peak
Annual membership: $60.00 - you save $12.00!
t Peak periods do not include the following holidays: New Year's Day, Presidents Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving Day, and Christinas Day.
You can reach Information Access Technologies, Inc. at: 46 Shattuck Square Suite 11, Berkeley, CA 94704, 510-704-0160/ voice, 510-704-8019/fax Copyright © 1992 Information Access Technologies, Inc. All Rights
Reserved. HoIoNet and HoloPacket are servicemarks of Information Access Technologies, Inc. PSINet is a servicemark of Performance Systems International, Inc. Prices subject to change.
U-1 496E
V32b/42b/FAX
-ANS OAT A'
'ORG voice
14.4 Kbps - V.32bis + V.42bis High Speed Modem/Fax
Model
Price
Fast
Renegotiation
Online Fall
Back/Forward
Remote
Configuration
Digicom 9624LE+
$695
NO
NO
Practical 14.4 SA
$549
YES
NO
Microcom
QX/4232bis
$899
YES
YES
Hayes Ultra 14.4
$999
YES
NO
U.S. Robotics
Courier V.32bis
$995
YES
YES
Telebit T3000
$949
YES
YES
Multimodem
MT1432BA
$899
YES
YES
ZyXEL U-1496E
YES
Ld
u
1— — j
I Cali Back
I Security With
I Password
1 Protection
FAXV.17
14.4 Kbps
S/R
Caller ID
Distinctive
Ring
NO
NO
NO
NO
NO
NO
NO
NO
NO
NO
NO
NO
NO
NO
NO
NO
NO
NO
NO
NO
YES
NO
NO
NO
YES
NO
NO
NO
14.4Kbps-V.32bis/V.32 + V.42bis/MNP® 5, V.42/MNP 4,3
The features you want in a High Speed-1 4.4Kbps Modem/Fax.
At nearly half the Price!
ZyXEL's U-1496E offers all the standard features available in a 14.4Kbps- V.32bis+V.42bis modem/fax with DTE
speeds up to 57.6Kbps. But you'll also find features you'd expect in only the "top-of-the-line" modems. So why
pay more for the features you want, when you can get the best value from ZyXEL for less?
Caller ID/Distinctive Ring
Displays the caller's phone number, time and
date stamp directly on your screen, and
responds to the distinctive rings for incoming
taxor modem calls.
Enhanced FAX
14.4Kbps G3 fax with automatic detection of
fax or modem calls. Automatically receives,
stores and/or prints faxes with our FREE ZFAX
software.
Automatic Fast Rate Renegotiation
Online automatic speed fall-back/fall-forward
allows the highest throughput achievable dur-
ing poor line conditions.
Multi-Level Security
Security password protection and automatic
call-back features are designed so only autho-
rized callers can access your system.
Nonvolatile Memory Storage
Store up to 4 user configuration profiles in
NVRAM, plus up to 10 user phone numbers and
their associated passwords.
Software/System Compatible
Supports V.25bis autodial and enhanced AT
Command Set, ensuring compatibility with pop-
ular communications/fax software. Available
with MAC™, Windows™ and DOS fax software
packages.
Guarantees
We offer a Full 5 year Parts and Labor
Warranty, a 30 day money back guarantee
and full BBS technical support line.
Once you've weighed the options, you'll
agree: Zyxel's U-1496E offers the best value
for less than any other modem/fax in its class.
So, don't hesitate. Call Today.
ZyXEL USA
( 800 ) 255-4101
Reseller discounts available
Visit Us At Comdex Fall ’92 North Hall #4644
ZyXEL USA, 4920 E. LaPalma Ave., Anaheim, CA 92807
Editor's Choice: ZyXEL U-1496E All brand names and trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
German Edition, 4/92 Comparison chart was completed in May, 1992.
TEL (714) 693-0808
FAX (714) 693-0705
BBS/Tech.Support
(714) 693-0762
DataStorm Techologie’s popular
Procomm product used by nearly a
third of those in the BBS commu-
nity.
The chief programmer of Telix was
Colin Sampaleanu, who will remain
with Exis, Inc. working on other
projects.
According to Woods, a new minor
upgrade to the product will be avail-
able before the end of the year. The
new upgrade will include a script
learning mode and ANSI music ca-
pabilities. Woods notes that this
will be the LAST shareware release
of Telix. Two more major versions of
Telix will be released in early 1993,
including versions for other plat-
forms beyond the IBM PC - but all
will be strictly commercial software.
The company plans on initial distri-
bution through Egghead Software.
deltaComm Development, PO Box
1185, Cary, NC 27512; (919)460-
4556 voice; (919)460-4531 fax;
(919)481-9399 BBS.
OFFLINE MAIL-
SLASHING PHONE BILLS
WITH SPARKY HERRING S
QWK MAIL READERS
Central to the woof and lore of the
development of electronic bulletin
boards is money - how to do more
communicating with less money.
Most of the developments in bulle-
tin boards were not firsts. It wasn’t
that no one had done it before, it was
more that no one had done it before
that cheaply, and so for most of the
world it wasn’t doable. Running a
time sharing service on a million
dollars worth of hardware was not
in and of itself an accomplishment.
But only a handful of humans had
the opportunity to do so. Doing even
a distant approximation of the same
thing on a $2000 personal computer
was remarkable not that it was tech-
nically superior or even similar. It is
remarkable in that it can be done on
a $2000 computer. And many of the
early BBS systems were pieced to-
gether from discarded parts of $2000
computers that the sysop actually
had more on the order of several
hundred dollars total hard cash in-
vestment in - and a lot of work.
And one of the fundamental costs
ever under attack by the BBS com-
munity is telephone costs. FidoNet
was bom to some degree because
Tom Jennings didn’t like paying
long distance telephone bills. The
original concept was to pass mail in
batches in the wee hours of the
morning when rates were lowest.
For many BBS callers, dialing a
local BBS costs precisely zero dol-
lars and zero cents. They are dialing
a local number with no toll charges
by the minute. But we were a bit
surprised to learn from the 1992
Boardwatch 100 Reader’s
Choice Contest that some 27 % of
all those voting, nominated a BBS
in a DIFFERENT area code from
their own as their favorite system.
And while we have no way of mea-
suring caller activity long distance
within the SAME area code, we
have to believe that at least half the
calling activity in BBSland is actu-
ally long distance - on the clock so to
speak.
Have most of the BBS callers in the
country won the lottery and thrown
thrift out the window? Not precisely.
But increasingly, they are actively
participating on distant bulletin
boards at very minimal costs.
They’re doing this with offline mail
readers.
The basic operation is fairly straight
forward. Callers access a door pro-
gram on their favorite BBS and
“setup” by selecting the message
conferences they wish to partici-
pate in. Thereafter, each time they
call, they can access the door and it
will pack up all relevant messages
from those conferences into a single
compressed archive packet, usually
with the PKZIP program but with
others as well . The caller then do wn-
22 Boardwatch - December 1992
loads the packet and disconnects
from the system. The packet con-
tains all unread messages from all
the conferences they have selected.
The caller then uncompresses the
.QWK archive and uses an offline
mail reader to browse, search, read,
and respond to messages in any of
the selected conferences. The offline
mail reader functions as a combina-
tion message base and message edi-
tor, allowing the caller to get the
feeling of being ON the BBS, but
actually completely disconnected.
When they’re finished, the offline
mail reader creates another packet
containing any replies entered. The
caller then dials back to the BBS,
and uploads the reply packet
through the QMail door program.
The door then inserts the replies
into the actual message base on the
bulletin board.
The net effect is that with a tele-
phone call spanning just a few min-
utes to download a packet, and an-
other even shorter telephone call to
upload replies, callers can partici-
pate in hundreds of message confer-
ences with the same dispatch as
being on the board for hours. Actu-
ally, the offline mail readers have
progressed at this point to where
the caller has more tools, including
spelling checkers, use of their own
editor or word processor, and vari-
ous storage, search, and printing
options just not available on the
BBS itself. In this way, a caller can
do mail with BBSs anywhere in the
country at a tiny fraction of the cost
of being “live” on the system.
How did all of this get started? Mark
Herring, dubbed “Sparky” by a Ra-
dio Shack manager he was doing
some consulting work for a number
of years ago, developed the first
offline mail reader widely used in
the BBS community. A Memphis
computer consultant, Herring was
moderately active on bulletin board
systems in 1987. A friend of his,
Dan Mascheck, relocated from Mem-
phis to Wharton Texas - some 60
miles outside of Houston. Mascheck
regularly called the bulletin boards
in Memphis to stay in touch and
complained about the long distance
bills he was incurring in doing so.
Herring had earlier done some work
on a networking program for
PCBoard BBS systems titled
PCBEcho. So he told Mascheck he
would see what he could work up for
him. The result was a combination
of a door program for PCBoard and
a stand alone utility callers could
use to dial in and fetch packets of
mail from the door program. He
titled it QMail. And it rather caught
on.
According to Herring, life since then
has held several surprises. “First, I
spent all of 30 minutes on the .QWK
file format used by QMail. If I had
known it would catch on the way it
has, I might have done a lot of
things differently. Second, I thought
the entire universe for this program
was maybe 40 copies.”
By the time he released the QMail
Reader and QMail Door on April
15, 1988, he already had 32 orders
in hand from enthusiastic BBS op-
erators. Since then, over 15,000 us-
ers have REGISTERED a copy of
QMail. The .QWK door and file
format have been used to develop
entire BBS networks - originally
Interlink (later renamed ILINK).
And there are now probably 50 dif-
ferent programs purporting to be
the ultimate .QWK offline mail
reader.
As best we can tell, the top five mail
readers remain QMail/QMail De-
luxe, Silly Little Mail Reader
and it’s successor OLX, EZ-Reader,
IstReader, and WinQuick.
Silly Little Mail Reader, abbrevi-
ated SLMR and pronounced
“SLIMER” registered some 2400
users as a shareware product. It
was originally written by Greg
Hewgill, who sold the product to
Mustang Software Inc. and in fact
joined the company. Today, the suc-
cessor to SLMR, titled OLX, is pack-
aged with Mustang’s Qmodem Pro
terminal program.
Typically, offline mail readers do
none of the actual chores of commu-
nicating with the BBS. A separate
terminal program is used to down-
load .QWK packets and upload
.REP reply packets. And usually,
the compress/uncompress function
is performed by a separate utility
such as PKZIP as well. For new
callers, the combination of terminal
programs, mail fetch scripts, com-
pression utilities, and the offline
mail reader itself, can be a little
daunting to setup - not terribly dif-
ficult, but containing a number of
components.
Herring wanted to get his father
involved in mail conferences, but
realized that for the only casually
interested, the barriers to getting
online were too troublesome. “Until
we realize that most of the world is
not going through sdl this to be on a
bulletin board, we’re going to be left
with just us byte heads holding flam-
ing wars online.”, claims Herring.
His attempt at simplifying the pro-
cess is the latest Sparkware release
- 1st Reader. The program con-
tains the terminal program - with a
script language, built-in ZMODEM
file transfers, and built-in compres-
sion software to deal with ZIP files.
1st Reader, released just this year,
is already estimated to rank fourth
in all time offline mail reader sales
at a list price of $25.
There is a test drive version of 1st
Reader available in the files 1ST-
101A.ZIPand 1ST-101B.ZIP The
program is rather seriously crippled
in that it is limited to reading only
20 messages per conference, and on
exit rather forcefully tries to get you
to dial Sparky’s BBS at (615)230-
8822 to register the program. His
original QMail Deluxe 2 product
remains popular and is available in
the file D2-125.ZIP.
Boardwatch - December 1992 23
Are You Losing Time
Setting Up Your Business
On-Line Information System?
Installing Commercial BBS Systems Is Our Only Busina
SYSTEM SUPPORT/CUSTOM PROGRAMMING
There's a lot available for the TBBS/TDBS System Operator, as well as for anyone interested in an Information System (BBS). If you want
to learn more about TBBS/TDBS just call our system and look through our Demonstration and Sales Area and register as a customer.
GW Associates offers full support to all System Operators and we have several excellent programmers available to help with your
applications and customizing. Please call our system at (508) 429-8385 (N,8,l ) and keep up with our new releases or call us on our voice
line at (508) 429-6227 if we can help you in any way. Installing and remotely supporting commercial systems is our ONLY business!
TBBS/TDBS SYSTEM ENHANCEMENT SOFTWARE
String !
String! the ultimate in user reminder programs. With STRING you can enter reminders anytime for display at a later date, and forget them.
You can enter up to four lines of text, or call a file to be displayed (ANSI and ASCII). You can use STRING to notify users when their
subscription is about to expire. And users can enter their own reminders. When you purchase String! for only $69.95 you can also purchase
it's companion. Header!, for only $20.
The STATistics Series
All SysOps want to know as much as possible about their systems and the STAT series is designed to report everything you want to know
about your TBBS system and user activities. TSTAT analyzes your dayfile data, USTAT analyzes your user activities, FSTAT tracks upload
and download statistics and MSTAT works with TIMS to analyze mailer activity. Each STAT module is $39.95, package pricing applies
on more than one module. (And look for TBILL, the most comprehensive TBBS billing utility available.)
ProMenu
If you are tired of working with cumbersome ANSI editors when creating new menus for your TBBS system (or ANY system that can
display a file as a menu) then you need to look at ProMenu. It will not only make the creation of ANSI menus easy, it will save you countless
hours when editing the menus created. And with well over 100 ANSI templates already available there are thousands of possible menu
backgrounds! This stand-alone product is well worth trying, a fully operational 10-day demo is available for download on request.
The program, with limited templates, lists at $59.95. With the full template package, $89.95.
Stellar Wars
An interactive space game for TBBS/TDBS systems, SW offers TRUE multi-line combat. You can maneuver your ship, fire on the enemy
and destroy same. It features complete planet environments, you can pilot your ship from star system to system, select where you want
to land, trade, drop by your local space port to gamble or purchase fuel as well as better weapons and ship equipment! One of the best
new multi-player games available, priced at $129.95.
GO-2
Soon you will be able to use multi-key menu entries on your TBBS/TDBS system! No longer will users be limited to single key choices from
a menu, with GO-2 users can enter true commands like "Download Files", "Play Blackjack", "Jump to Chat", "Help", "GOTO Tech
Support", etc. This program is being designed to be the most simple user interface possible, and simple for the SysOp also! We hope to
release GO-2 in early August.
Call our Sales and Support BBS for full demonstrations on over 100 TBBS/TDBS add-on application, entertainment and utility programs
GW Associates
P.O. Box 6606
Holliston, MA 01746
Voice Phone (508) 429-6227
Data Line (508) 429-8385
Fax Line (508) 429-6227
© 1992 GW Associates TBBS/TDBSfTIMS arc trademarks of eSoft. Incorporated
GW Associates was formed several years ago to promote and
support the growing need for Information Management systems
(BBS). Our goal has always been to make communications
easier. We've always had the opinion that many seem to work
very hard to make ’telecommunications" some kind of mystery,
a gray area where common man should never wander. And it
really can be made simple. We'll be happy to show you how!
GW Associates
The Only Choice
In Telecommunications
Muti-User Environments
Our ONLY business is telecommunications. We install commercial
information management systems, we install telecommunications
networks linking offices across the country using personal computers
and inexpensive automated software. And we sell everything from
single line TBBS software to 64 line "plug and play" packages.
Cost Effective
We remotely maintain commercial BBS systems. It's a good bet that
you have never hired an employee to be a System Operator. And
any time that an employee spends in the design and maintenance of
a system is taking time away from the work that employee was hired
to do! What happens when the employee is promoted, transfers or
resigns? Can you afford to hire and train, or take another employee
away from assigned tasks? We can support your TBBS system
remotely at what might be a lower cost than what you will pay
for an employee benefits package, and we won't demand paid
vacations or coffee breaks.
Connectivity
Across the Room or Around the World
Dedicated Support
GW Associates has from one to five employees, depending on need. It is set up to make the best use of available
expertise, and because our business is fully dedicated to telecommunications we make good use of that technology.
We work with programmers with various levels of expertise and various capabilities and do our best to match the
requirements of our customers with the people who can best fill those requirements.
Call Today For More Information
If there's anything we can do to help you make better use of any communications tool, please ask. If you're not
sure if you really have a need for a system and want to know more, please ask. We're here to help in any way we
can. We hope you'll give us the opportunity to help. If you need information on prices or just need information
on communications, don't hesitate to ask for help. We enjoy what we do and we'll enjoy discussing your
applications and needs.
Voice Phone (508) 429-6227 Data Line (508) 429-8385
© 1992 GW Associates TBBS/TDBS/TIMS are trademarks of eSoR Incorporated
Design & Layout by AQUILA BBS voice (708) 820-0480
Nonetheless, the program is catch-
ing on and many BBS operators are
including it in the price of a sub-
scription. Since all the components
needed are in one package, it takes
less explanation for them to get
callers up and using offline mail
readers. From the sysops point of
view, many of the early systems in
the early days of offline mail only
had a node or two. By moving call-
ers to offline mail readers, they could
accommodate more callers on fewer
telephone lines. And that economic
incentive continues to this day.
But offline mail readers closely re-
semble word processors or text edi-
tors in that choosing one is a very
personal decision and the subject of
"which one is best" can be the source
of endless fiery debate. There are
nearly 50 current titles available
for download and each has its fol-
lowing of loyal users. In addition to
the five most popular, we found a
couple of others interesting. SPEED
READ by Jim Smith of Birming-
ham Alabama does some interest-
ing things. It is actually a database
of messages that works in itself like
a BBS with message threading, ex-
piring and deleting messages that
are older than X days, allows use of
an external editor, and as implied
by the title, it is very fast. In handles
message threading much like the
TBBS bulletin board and with
eSoft’s QSO option module mail
door in beta test, is picking up a
quick following among the TBBS
crowd. A comer in the online world
seems to be BLUE WAVE, which is
loaded with every “feature” an offli ne
power user could want. Vic Kass of
Rose Media in Willowdale Ontario
offers a powerful program titled
RoseReader and an accompany-
ing RoseMail Door program for
PCBoard systems.
The popularity of the .QWK mail
readers has a down side. The origi-
nal .QWK packet specification, by
Herring’s own admission took up a
scant 30 minutes of his life in cre-
ation. There was no way of knowing
at the time that entire networks
and hundreds of thousands of users
would put it into play. It was pat-
terned after the way PCBoard
handles messages.lt has expanded
over time to include file downloads,
bulletins, news files, and other good-
ies aside from just mail. But the TO
and FROM fields remain limited to
a scant 25 characters in length. And
Herring himself plans to expand
the .QWK standard to accommo-
date such things as graphics, sound,
NAPLPS, and other multimedia
type enhancements. This coming
QWK 2 specification could signifi-
cantly expand the use of offline mail
for many other functions.
Internet mail, for example, has
posed some problems. Herring did
an Internet mail package for
PCBoard systems marketed
through Canada Remote Systems.
One of the problems faced was that
many Internet domain name sys-
tem e-mail addresses exceed 25 char-
acters. The way this was handled is
with an optional address line as the
first line of a message. Any message
with TO: and a domain name ad-
dress in the first line of the message
is treated as if the first line address
supercedes anything in the actual
25-character TO field of the mes-
sage. The problem this brings up is
in replies. You can’t just press R
and have the mailer capture the
FROM address as a TO address, it
must be laboriously re-entered by
hand on the first line of the mes-
sage. In his own 1st Reader, Her-
ring handles this using TO field
macros. If you enter @U-FROM@
in the TO field, the reader auto-
matically scans the message for the
From: address and formats a TO:
line in the reply for you. It’s a bit of
a kludge, but it works.
For Herring, QMail has changed a
lot of things. His consulting practice
has devolved to taking care of a
couple of loyal customers who de-
pend on him. He works full time as
the developer of his shareware line,
which also now includes utility pro-
grams allowing BBS operators to
offer FAX e-mail and one program
that will forward BBS messages to
a Motorola alphanumeric pager.
He’s moved his family from Mem-
phis to Hendersonville Tennessee,
a picturesque rural setting some 25
minutes north of Nashville in pur-
suit of a better quality of life. He
works from home, developing
shareware products and support-
ing his customer base. A 700 square
foot office adjoining his home houses
Sparkware. And he seems to be
having altogether too much fun to
call it work. Mark Herring,
Sparkware, PO Box 636,
Hendersonville, TN 37077;
(615)230-6245 voice; (615)230-
8822 BBS.
The accompanying table lists a sam-
pling of some of the more popular
offline mail readers and their file
names. Readers are available for
PC, Macintosh, Amiga, Atari ST,
UNIX, and even CP/M machines
incredibly enough. These are avail-
able widely on bulletin boards ev-
erywhere. Subscribers to the
Boardwatch BBS can download
most of these from our system at
(303)973-4222. We are currently
beta testing eSoft’s QSO Option
Module to allow offline mail experi-
mentation. But there currently ap-
pears to be about 50 of these readers
available and a gentleman in Texas
named Patrick Y. Lee appears to
have taken it as a mission in life to
actually track all of these, who the
authors are, the latest versions, etc.
He posts the resulting list of read-
ers, door programs, etc. in an exten-
sive file titled QWKPyymm.ZIP
where YY is the year and MM is the
month. The file is updated monthly
and available from the Aardvark
BBS at (212)496-8324. Lee can be
reached by e-mail at
p.lee@green.cooper.edu or
Patrick 1 @dorsai.com .
26 Boardwatch - December 1992
OFFLINE MAIL READERS
A Sampling of .QWK Format Offline Readers for Various Platforms
IBM PC
IstReader vl.01
1ST-101A.ZIP
1ST-101B.ZIP
Mark Herring
Sparkware
PO Box 386
Hendersonville, TN 37077
Voice (615)230-6245
BBS (615)230-8822
Blue Wave v2.10
BWAVE210.ZIP
Geroge Hatchew
Cutting Edge Computing
PO Box 90476
Burton. Ml 48509
Voice (313)743-9283
BBS (313)743-8464
EZ-Reader 1.39
EZ139.ZIP
Eric Cockrell
Thumper Technologies
PO Box 471346
Tulsa, OK 74147
BBS (918)355-4409
Jabber vl .2
JABR12.ZIP
Mark Della
Della & Muegge Enterprises
PO Box 4251
Santa Rosa. CA 95402
BBS (707)575-0636
KingQWK vl.05
KQWK105.ZIP
Mike King
PO Box 4020
Alameda, CA 94501
BBS (510)865-7115
MegaMail Reader v2.10
MEGAR210.ZIP
Kip Compton
PO Box 206
MIT Branch
Cambridge. MA 02139
BBS (617)494-1366
OFFLINE vl.42
OFFLI142.ZIP
Harvey Parisien
PO Box 323, Station “A"
Kingston. ON K7M 6R2 Canada
BBS (613)389-3992
OLX v2.2
OLX-TD.ZIP
Mustang Software, Inc.
PO Box 2264
Bakersfield, CA 93303
Voice (805)395-0223
BBS (805)395-0650
Orator vl.0.9 for Windows
ORATOR.ZIP
Nick Dyer
EvaWare UK
5 Grosvenor Court
Louth, Lincolnshire LN11 9LT
England
Power-QWK v2.15
PQ215.ZIP
Gale Green
Powerline Systems
44 Rydal Way
Ruislip. Middlesex HA4 0RU
england
BBS 44-81-841-1847
QMail Delux 2 V 1.25
D2-125.ZIP
D2_125DX.ZIP
Mark Herring
Sparkware
PO Box 386
Hendersonville. TN 37077
Voice (615)230-6245
BBS (615)230-8822
Rose Reader vl.70
IRR170A.ZIP
IRR170B.ZIP
IRR170C.ZIP
IRR170D.ZIP
Vic Kass
Rose Media Inc
PO Box 345, Station “A"
Willowdale, ON M2N 5S9
Canada
Voice (416)731-8805
BBS (416)733-2285
Session Manager 1.06
SM106_N.ZIP
SM106_O.ZIP
SMQI106.ZIP
Patrick Hart
Exchange Computers
333 Office Square Ln, Suite 103
Virginia Beach, VA 23462
Voice (804)552-1009
BBS (804)552-1010
Silver Xpress v3.01
SXR301.ZIP
Hector Santos
Santronics Software
1451 Plymouth Ave.
Irwin, PA 15642
BBS (412)864-2294
Speed Read 1.20
SPEED120.ZIP
Jim Smith
344 Observatory Drive
Birmingham, AL 35206
BBS (205)744-8546
Win Qwk for Windows
WINQ200A.ZIP
Doug Crocker
PO Box 1454
Kent, WA 98035
BBS (206)850-0439
MACINTOSH
Alice v2.1
ALICE21.CPT
Michael Keller
Frankfurt, Germany
BBS 49-6101-41471
Freddie vl.2
FREDD12.CPT
Kern Tekinay
BBS (718)997-1189
AMIGA
Amiga-Mail Elite vl.07
AMEV107.LZH
Patrick Evans
PO Box 785
Nobleton, ON LOG 1 NO Canada
MessageView vl.13
MV112EVL.ZIP
Robert Gibbs
4660 Voyager Dr
Pensacola, FL 32514
Voice (904)474-9470
Q-Blue v.08
Q-BLUE08.LZH
Paul Kienitz
6430 San Pablo Ave
Oakland, CA 94608
ATARI ST
MaxiMiser vl .60
MXMSR160.ZIP
Shawn Smith
27 Carr Dr
Ajax, ON LIT 3E2 Canada
BBS (416)683-3089
COCO/OS9
SCRIBE31.AR
CP/M
CRR0140.zip
OS/2
MR/2 1.31
MR2_131.ZIP
Nick Knight
1 823 David Ave
Parma, OH 44134
BBS (216)356-1772
UNIX
ATP vl .3
ATPQWK04.ZIP
Thomas McWilliams
PO Box 7545
Arlington, VA 22207
BBS(202)686-9086
Boardwatch - December 1992 27
Chicagoland's Largest System
Aquila has filled the computer screens of Chicagoland for over three years,
growing from a single modem line system in 1988 to over 25 lines in 1992.
Aquila's success over the years is due to the enthusiastic support of our users.
New callers are encouraged to download our current file list and electronic mail
conference listing. A short guided tour highlighting our system services is also
available for new users. All of our information is automatically mailed to you to
read in the comfort of your home or office. So pick up your modem and give us
a call! You will find Aquila BBS to be the most valuable bulletin board in your
dialer.
Give your modem a workout! We add new shareware and public domain
programs everyday. Over 400 programs are added weekly. With more than 5
Gigabytes of on-line storage, we stock over 50 thousand programs. Aquila
makes it easy to find the programs that are important to you, by organizing them
into 120+ file directory categories everyday.
With Windows becoming the most popular user interface around, we make an
extra effort to keep you supplied with the latest programs and enhancements by
devoting a special conference area just for Windows containing 2000+ files
organized into 40+ file directory categories.
Our organization and the latest programs make our file areas the most popular
around. These are just a few of our most popular categories available:
The AQUILA BBS Team (Left to right: Kevin & Kristy Behrens, Steve Williams, Chris Babb)
Diagnostic Utilities
System Enhancements
File Organizers
Word Processing
Computer Games
Music and Midi Sound Files
Computer Animations
CAD Drawing Utilities
Business - Finance - Tax
Novell and Lan Utilities
Database
Programming
Icons - Icon Managers
Wallpaper - BMP’s
Multi-Media Related
Fonts - Font Utilities
JXI ew User Information
All first time callers receive by mail, our printed 'New User Information' and 'E-Mail Conference Directory'
guide, as well as a 'Quick Command Guide' to help you get the most out of Aquila. The new user information
covers system services such as answers to commonly asked questions, USAToday, Boardwatch Magazine, and
Electronic Mail off-line readers. The 'Quick Command Guide' is a desktop lookup for using Aquila commands.
mjMJS BBS
708-820-8344
New User Information
Callers that are new to modem communications will find 'The Aquila Starter Kit' a great time-saver. Easy for
the beginner and helpful for the expert! This $39.95 kit includes the following:
Procomm (communications program)
Full documentation for all BBS commands
Off-line file browsing program
Our complete file listing on floppy disk
Off-Line E-Mail Reader
Three month basic membership
Around The World E-MAIL
Over 450 Conference Topics
We currently echo to and from ILink, RIME, Fido-Net and Throbnet with more to come in the near future. You
can get virtually any question answered here and join in on lively discussions with people from across the
country and around the world. We also publish our own 'E-Mail Directory' that is sent to all users of Aquila
BBS. This directory lists all of our conferences by category and gives a brief description of the topic of each one.
Here is a small sampling of over 450 interesting topics that we offer:
General Discussion
Computer Related
Vendor Support
Programming Languages
For-Sale
Current Events
L.' fcVfc'
1992
Conference
Directory
, & & /7
Call Today ! - Modem - (7 08) 820-8344 - Voice - (708) 820-0480
WHAT HAPPENED TO
ISDN?
Next year, we will reach the end of
an experiment to see how fast you
can pump digital data, bits and
bytes, through a public switched
telephone network inherently de-
signed to handle voice sound - barely.
In the early days of the last decade,
110 bits per second (bps) and 300
bps connections were about as fast
as you could convert digital ones
and zeros to an audio waveform,
transmit them coherently over the
available 3500 Hz voice bandwidth,
and decode them back into digital
data at the other end. Advances in
filters and detectors could, in theory,
advance that to 600 baud (tonal
state changes).
Some clever people devised a method
of phase modulation to encode TW O
bits of information for each tonal
change - giving us 1200 bps, and
through quadrature phase modula-
tion FOUR bits of data - 2400 bps.
Eventually, new encoding schemes
such as Trellis Coding extending
this to the CCITT V.32 standard
for 9600 bps. And today, 14.4kbps
is becoming increasingly common.
Simultaneously, data compression
technology has allowed us to either
compress files to a fraction of their
original size before transmittal, or
to compress uncompressed files on
the fly - today’s V.42bis data com-
pression standard for modems. On
raw text files, compression gives us
the APPARENT flow of data at rates
realistically as high as about 30,000
bps on most data - all vendor claims
to the contrary.
Next year, we will see the final leg of
this march toward ever higher
speeds. The last improvement will
bring us to 19.2kbps - perhaps a
little higher in the basic modulation
rate. The laws of information theory
indicate that at that point, barring
some unlikely new breakthrough in
physics, that IS all the data theo-
retically possible to squirt through
a 3500 Hz pipe. Some modem de-
signers are counting on a little wider
pipe from the telephone company to
do some things on some standard
lines at higher rates. We don’t think
it will happen. Those of us accus-
tomed to seeing more magic from
the kitchens of the modem vendors
every year are due for some level of
disappointment. The party is draw-
ing to a close.
So far, this hasn’t actually caused
much upset. Partly because we
haven’t yet actually hit the wall , but
also partly because everyone as-
sumed along the way that by the
time we arrived there, the telephone
companies would bail us out with a
wider channel.
The great hope for a low cost, flex-
ible, switched public network that
could handle higher rates has been
Integrated Services Digital Net-
work or ISDN. Originally proposed
in 1979, ISDN has had such a tortu-
ous history on the way to implemen-
tation, that many have noted that it
actually stands for I Still Don’t
kNow.
At this point, ISDN is NOT the
cutting edge technology offering the
highest speed connections. Fiber
optic cable and the SONET related
products probably hold that spot
and a new technology titled Asyn-
chronous Transfer Mode or ATM
is gaining a lot of attention as well.
These services can offer data rates
of more than a Megabit per second,
and in the case of SONET, mul-
tiples of that. The problem is that
these services require massive out-
lays of capital expenditure for actu-
ally rewiring the connection to your
home or business - not likely to be
expected from a telephone system
that hasn’t actually completed in-
stallation of touch tone service na-
tionwide and that still sports four-
party service in a few rural areas.
Technical progress has been one of
the victims of the 1984 breakup of
the Bell system, and the seven
Regional Bell Operating Compa-
nies (RBOC) seem to have been
taken over by tiny minds more in-
trigued by the possibilities of in-
vesting money garnered from a guar-
anteed monopoly of U.S. telephone
ratepayers in fiber optic lines across
Siberia, insurance, real estate, and
cellular telephone towers in East-
ern bloc countries than they are in
investing in upgrades here in their
own service areas.
But ISDN is a hair step from being
a fait accompli. It is hanging right
there at each central office switch-
ing station in the country. The hard-
ware to run it is being installed now
in central offices across the land for
reasons having nothing to do with
ISDN. It requires NO installation of
new wire or cable to the home or
office - one of it’s specific design
considerations was to use existing
copper wiring. It DOES require the
addition of some line driver cards -
at about $100 per subscriber in
quantity, to accomplish.
Basic Rate ISDN consists of two 64
kbps “bearer” or B channels and
one 16 kbps data or D channels.
The 64 kbps data channels are not
just capable of, but designed to carry,
raw digital data at 64 kbps. You
could conceivably inverse multiplex
these two channels for 128 kbps
connections, and indeed, equipment
has been designed to do just that.
This is the data connection BEFORE
any compression algorithms are
applied.
ISDN accomplishes a number of
things rather immediately. First,
you effectively get TWO telephone
lines. You can place two different
telephone calls out over the same
copper wires at the same time. Imag-
ine placing independent telephone
calls from two telephone extensions
now - with one telephone line.
Another improvement of ISDN is
call setup time. The analog tele-
phone system provides a varying
call setup, but on long distance calls,
Boardwatch - December 1992 29
you can expect as much as an 8
second delay between the time you
dial the last digit and when the
other end actually starts to ring.
With ISDN, this is more like 1.5
seconds.
There are data services you can
purchase now - at fairly hefty prices,
to link two or more points. These are
used by companies to, for example,
bridge two local area networks lo-
cated in different buildings or parts
of the city. But these leased line
solutions are essentially standing
structures. One of the beauties of a
public switched telephone system is
that you can erect a link between
two points on the globe for just the
period you need to complete a call,
and then tear it down again (by
hanging up) - paying for only the
actual time required to conduct the
call. ISDN promised to be the digi-
tal component of this public switched
network.
As long as ISDN was just proposed,
the only pricing ever discussed by
the telephone companies was 1.5 X
basic telephone service. In other
words, if you were paying$13.50for
a single residential telephone line,
you would pay about $21 for ISDN
service. And it would function effec-
tively as two telephone lines. The
reason for this pricing theory had
little to do with the costs of imple-
menting ISDN. As previously stated,
the telephone companies were al-
ready instituting most of the re-
quirements for ISDN anyway for
other purposes - mostly having to do
with their own cost structure and
convenience. The reason for the 1.5x
pricing was that it was reasoned
that that is what would cause even-
tually universal conversion to ISDN.
The subscribers would jump at the
chance to have the equivalent of two
telephone lines for the cost of one
and a half.
And until ISDN is fairly universal,
it has rather limited value. You can
call non-ISDN telephones from an
ISDN installation, but you can’t do
data on it aside from using an ordi-
nary modem.
The other hope within the data com-
munity has been simplicity. ISDN
is a chance to start over. Today’s
modems require too much technical
knowledge by the user to get the
intitialization strings and com-
mands to work with various modem
designs. Too many conventions grew
up over the time data communica-
tions developed, and users had to
become aware of things like the
number of data bits, the number of
stop bits, etc. that no one really
cares or should know about. It was
hoped that ISDN would be more
standard, since it was based on a
standard network designed for data,
and this standardization would
carry over to the ISDN adapters
and software personal computers
would use to access the network.
Given the drive by modem vendors
to “differentiate” their products and
make them more attractive than
the next guys modem, I doubt this
will actually be the standardization
nirvana that most believe. But it
could be a little bit simpler - at least
for awhile.
But there have been stumbling
blocks. First, in the post divestiture
days, TWO major equipment manu-
facturers emerged with modern
switching equipment - AT&T and
Northern Telecom along with a
smattering of smaller developers.
Some phone companies bought from
one company, and some from the
other. And a couple actually mixed
and matched between the two as
the opportunity arose. And as it
turned out, the ISDN based on each
of these vendor’s equipment, wasn’t
the same ISDN. They wouldn’t work
together. So much for standards.
Last year, Bell CORE went back to
square one and introduced essen-
tially a NEW ISDN standard they
termed NATIONAL ISDN 1 . Ev-
eryone seemed to sign up to it and in
theory, it can all work together now.
It isn’t actually all working together
yet, but it could quite soon.
To this point, most ISDN 2B+D
sales have been to companies, un-
der private non-tariffed contracts.
They make the connection only
within a single central office (CO) or
at best a small group of COs within
a local calling area. In August, Bell
Atlantic announced the first system
where a local RBOC switch could
pass ISDN calls to national long
distance carriers. Termed the 64
Clear Channel Capability, it will
be introduced in New Jersey and
Delaware initially, and will only
allow long distance calls within the
Bell Atlantic region, but they envi-
sion connections to other RBOC
through long distance services quite
shortly.
The more pressing problem with
ISDN have been the RBOC them-
selves. Some have actually been
fairly progressive. Ameritech is cur-
rently making ISDN connections in
the Chicago area at rates as low as
$18 per month. But even here, they
want to slip in a twelve cent per
minute charge for a local call. The
quest for the quick robbery never
seems to end.
The worst of the crew appears to be
U.S. West. Insisting that ISDN is a
technology, not a product, they’ve
introduced ISDN only as a premium
service at rates often in excess of
$100 per month. In Omaha this
year, they actually introduced a
“data-less” ISDN at a little over $90
per month, where they actually
BROKE ISDN and intentionally
disabled the inherent data capabili-
ties - so they could offer it as a value
added “option” at over $100. This
cro-magnon approach to ISDN in-
troduction absolutely guarantees
failure of the “product” and appears
to be manipulatively designed as a
demonstration that there is no mar-
ket potential for ISDN - basically so
they can AVOID offering it in most
of their fourteen-state service area?
30 Board watch - December 1992
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Why would anyone want to do some-
thing like this? Basically, all of the
RBOC, and US West most rabidly,
resent being in what amounts to a
commodity business. In a perfect
world, they DO want the guaran-
teed business a monopoly grants
them, but they would prefer the
monopoly extend to higher margin,
higher profit value-added services.
This is pretty simple, they want to
be able to charge whatever they
like, and have a completely captive
audience that is virtually required
by law to purchase from them. This
insatiable greed is what funds, in a
very direct way, the “free the Bells”
sentiment in Washington. These
companies are spending millions of
dollars gleaned from their own cus-
tomers to lobby for legislation en-
abling them a free hand under the
cloak of monopoly.
And what do they do with a free
hand? The city of Colorado
Springs is finding out the hard
way. U.S. West wooed this city most
earnestly to put in ISDN service
across the city government and
promised them a good rate to do so.
Colorado Springs currently pays $38
a line, or thereabouts, for ISDN
service, a scant increase over nor-
mal analog lines. They in vested over
$300,000 in ISDN terminal adapt-
ers and other customer premise
equipment (CPE) revised their en
tire telephone system, and put up
with endless system difficulties as
US West got the process down to
something that would work. This
year, the original contract is up.
U S. West has informed them they
want nearly TRIPLE the amount
to continue an already installed ser-
vice. With the investment in time,
money, and resource this small town
spent to get ISDN to work, they
have little choice but to pay this
tyrannical rate - essentially armed
robbery by the telephone company
with Colorado Springs own invest-
ment in CPE as the assault weapon .
The Colorado PUC opened hearings
during the week of August 24th on
a fairly tentative proposal to make
ISDN part of the state definition of
Universal Service. Actually, this is
a timid foray into addressing this
question. It proposes no tariffs, no
pricing, or nothing particularly use-
ful in an immediate sense. But US
West was granted a rate increase
previously to install all digital
switching throughout the state over
a period of time. This proposal sim-
ply mandates that ISDN at least be
AVAILABLE, at some price,
throughout the state - within five
years.
Without even hearing the argu-
ments, by the time the hearings had
opened, US West had announced
that it was beyond the legal powers
of the PUC to make such a demand,
and they would fight it in court if
enacted.
At least in US West territory, we are
quickly reaching a state of open
warfare between a regulated mo-
nopoly and the subscriber base it
serves. ISDN appears to be one of
the current casualties.
Colorado is particularly vulnerable
to this situation. The state’s oil in-
dustry collapsed in the ’80s and
their defense industries in the ’90s.
Colorado sports a very educated and
technical work force. Information
industries complement the area’s
tourist industry nicely in that they
tend to be smoke-stack free and
bring in much of their income on a
national and even international
basis.
But outside of Denver, most of the
state is quite rural. Small informa-
tion companies can easily setup shop
in small towns across the state, at-
tract quality workers at really low
wages compared to either coast and
still offer a very attractive cost of
living and quality of life for their
people. Colorado is geographically
central - a slight advantage when
dealing with time zones and satel-
lites. But to make it, these compa-
nies need advanced telephone ser-
vices to operate and compete na-
tionally, and will need them more
urgently in the future.
Nationally, the situation looks
brighter, but not much. Hayes Mi-
crocomputer Products, Inc., has had
a working ISDN adapter for several
years now. The problem is that with-
out a fairly universal ISDN service
offering, there is little customer base
to serve with it. DigiBoard has re-
cently offered a LAN bridge titled
DigiBoard IMAC that will link any
Ethernet LAN via ISDN - regard-
less of the network operating sys-
tem used, at $2195. With one of
these boxes on each of two
geograpically separated Ethernet
LANs, you can link the LANs via
ISDN at a feasible data rate some-
what inexpensively. But again,
ISDN has to be available in your
area. DigiBoard, (800)344-4273
voice; (612)943-9020 International;
(612)943-5398 fax.
And this may be one of the areas
causing telco intransigence on
ISDN. Despite their insistence that
“there is no market” for ISDN, they
know full well there is one. Over the
past decade, they really didn’t have
a low cost solution for data network-
ing. But companies needed one any-
way. So the telcos began offering
ridiculously over-priced point-to-
point solutions involving leased
lines. For large companies with a lot
of demand for the connection, these
make sense despite their price,
which has come down in recent
years. But many smaller compa-
nies, that can ill afford it and use
but a fraction of the capacity they
are paying for, still have to have it.
If ISDN were offered, a significant
percentage of the telco’s current
hostages would make the switch to
the lower cost service using prod-
ucts such as the DigiBoard IMAC or
the Hayes ISDN adapter. And the
telcos, almost fervently incapable of
determining what the market for
almost anything IS, doesn’t have
the vision to see a much larger,
albeit lower margin, market among
32 Boardwatch - December 1992
the general populace to make up the
loss of these few data intensive cap-
tive customers.
And so ISDN limps along into the
future. The unfortunate thing here
is not what will happen to ISDN,
but what will happen to AX.L future
public network technologies. The
same forces that have applied to
ISDN apply approximately to the
same degree to ANY further ad-
vances in the telephone network.
Indeed, ISDN requires less invest-
ment in capital equipment than al-
most anything that can be proposed.
The current administrative and or-
ganizational structure of our tele-
phone company inherited most of
the telephone network we have to-
day. This organizational structure
was artificially created by the De-
partment of J ustice nearly ten years
ago and is unproven as viable over
the course of time. ISDN is actually
a test as to whether the local mo-
nopoly bell company setup then can
be trusted to manage this network.
If they are unable to implement
ISDN on a universal basis, given
that ISDN uses both the switching
equipment and copper wiring of the
existing network with very modest
upgrades to equipment, then they
will most surely be continously un-
able to launch more progressive
technological upgrades in the fu-
ture. An economy increasingly de
pendent on information and com-
munications, will have an aging
network incapable of supporting it
and every advance will be through a
battle with the local telephone com-
pany - with entities such as Colo-
rado Springs slaughtered in the
process. The very economic well
being of individual states, may in
the future be determined by whether
they are blessed with a “good RBOC”
or a “bad RBOC.” This is not likely
a good thing.
The emerging solution is competi-
tion. The FCC is leaning heavily
toward allowing competition in the
local loop. A Chicago company has
been authorized to provide switched
services in 28 Illinois communities.
Several rulings recently by the FCC
have favored co-location issues
where companies offering services
can demand location adjoining telco
switching facilities. And in hear-
ings regarding the coming Personal
Communications Network or PCN,
the FCC has actually floated the
idea of opening the market specifi-
cally to non-landline AND non-cel-
lular companies only. And while
competition may in the long run be
the best solution, it is the long way
around. If the local telephone com-
panies want to play at all in a com-
munications future, demonstrating
that they can in fact deploy univer-
sal ISDN would be a good step in
that direction.
SOFTWARE
NOTES
GREENLEAF COMMLIB -
MODEM
COMMUNICATIONS
PROGRAMMING MADE
EASIER
by Alan D. Bryant
Once you ve called a bulletin board
it seems a natural progression to
run one Once you’re immersed in
communications, it’s also fairly natu-
ral to have a desire to participate at
a higher level — programmingyour
own communications applications
Even expeit pi ogrammers, however,
often struggle with the PCs archi-
tecture when trying to code even the
most basic of communications pro-
grams.
Libraries — pre-written, packaged
routines — are a popular solution to
many of the challenges of program-
ming. Communications is no excep-
tion, and the Greenleaf CommLib
for C from Greenleaf Soft ware is a
robust example of one of those li-
braries.
What makes communications ap-
plications so difficult? Primarily, it’s
the anemic support for serial I/O in
the PC itself. Although the BIOS in
a PC or compatible supports basic
communications, it does so only in
polled mode — a resource intensive,
low-efficiency, low-performance
method of handling a serial port. In
fact, using polled mode with today’s
high speed modems is a pointless
endeavor; there’s simply not enough
horsepower to handle it effectively.
Even for 2400 bps, polled mode
serial I/O is mostly useless.
For this reason, interrupts are gen-
erally used for serial I/O. The archi-
tecture of the PC and its micropro-
cessor is, in fact, entirely oriented to
interrupts. Simply, interrupts are a
way to get the attention of the mi-
croprocessor and cause it to stop
what it’s doing temporarily and to
handle a particular task. In a typi-
cal serial I/O situation, each charac-
ter coming in or going out triggers
an interrupt.
In serial applications, regions of
memory are allocated as output and
input buffers. On transmit, a com-
munications application places a
character in the output buffer, and
triggers an interrupt to process the
character On receive, the serial port
hardware triggers an interrupt so
that the character can be processed
by the application.
The interrupt handling requires
complex ‘black art” programming
know n as interrupt Sei vice ftou
tines, or ISRs. These low-level han-
dlers are, in essence, resident chunks
of program code. They “attach” to a
particular interrupt number, and
lie dormant until an interrupt is
triggered. Once triggered, the mi-
croprocessor stops the execution of
the main application, executes the
ISR code, then returns to the run-
ning application.
Every modern communications pro-
Boardwatch - December 1992 33
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gram has ISRs at its heart. They
load when you run the application,
and unload once it’s done automati-
cally. The program itself handles
screen presentations, terminal emu-
lation, file transfer, etc., simply by
placing characters in buffers and
taking them out, triggering inter-
rupts where necessary to activate
the ISR code.
The ISR code is at the heart of the
difficulty. Like any resident soft-
ware code, these special programs
must be high in performance and
well behaved to perform their func-
tion in life. Writing ISRs requires
special talent and experience, lock-
ing the “average” programmer out
of the action of serial communica-
tions.
Greenleafs CommLib for C places
the power of advanced communica-
tions applications within reach of
virtually any C programmer — even
those with little practical program-
ming experience. If you understand
C language programming, and have
a moderate amount of experience
doing it, CommLib can be used to
generate communications applica-
tions in record time.
The library, version 3.20, is the most
current edition of an established set
of comm routines. This later version
brings with it entirely new simplic-
ity and ease of understanding with
its so-called “Level 2” routines. Us-
ing the Level 2 functions, you can
code an operational communications
application with as little as three
function calls — one to open a serial
port, one to read a character from it,
and another to write a character to
it. The library’s intelligent design
handles all the dirty work, while
you can concentrate on the opera-
tion of your program.
Adding XMODEM, YMODEM,
ZMODEM or Kermit file transfers
is as easy as adding a few more
function calls from the library. For
each protocol, you make one func-
tion call for downloads, and another
for uploads. Feed the functions the
proper information, and the rest is
totally automatic. You can get fancy
and tack on sophisticated file trans-
fer status information or pop-up
windows to track progress if you’re
inclined, but very basic programs
demand little from you in the way of
programming expertise.
One of the strongest features of
Greenleaf CommLib is the wide ar-
ray of communications hardware
support. Regular comm ports with
interrupt-driven interfaces are of
course supported, as are intelligent
and non-intelligent DigiBoard,
Amet, and StarGate multi-port se-
rial cards; MODEM Assist and
Sparkle for modem and port access
over a LAN; regular comm ports
with polled mode BIOS interface;
and even support for the popular
FOSSIL comm driver common in
BBS and FidoNet environments.
Regardless of which type of port
access you use, the only difference
in your program code is how you
open the serial port. The same code
can be used to read and write char-
acters and perform file transfers,
regardless of what serial hardware
was designated when the port was
opened.
Automatic recognition and support
for 16550 buffered UARTs (Uni-
versal Asynchronous Receiver/
Transmitter - the chip that handles
serial I/O in the PC ) is also included.
You can open an unlimited number
of ports for simultaneous multi-port
communications I/O as well — even
a mixture of port types if you wish.
Even though I have only average C
programming skill, I was able to
code a working, capable communi-
cations application over a weekend.
Most of my effort was spent in cod-
ing the screen I/O routines and
ANSI terminal emulation. A few
hours’ work yielded an application
34 Boardwatch - December 1992
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with full uploading and download-
ing (including ZMODEM auto-
downloading), a dialing directory,
pop-up menus for changing the com-
munications port and its param-
eters, and a status bar at the bottom
of the screen.
Greenleaf provides an excellent ref-
erence manual with the library.
Besides complete function documen-
tation, it contains helpful explana-
tions and background on serial I/O
and the library itself. The support
at Greenleaf is equally excellent;
the two times I found it necessary to
call them, the support reps were
knowledgeable, helpful and friendly,
providing quick answers to my ques-
tions.
Over 100 working code examples
are provided. You can quickly locate
an example of virtually every func-
tion in the library so you can see the
proper way to implement it.
One negative of the library is the
ZMODEM support, which leaves a
little to be desired. Crash recovery
is not yet supported, and there’s no
way to prevent it from overwriting
existing files — even if the existing
file is identical to the copy of it being
downloaded. (Most ZMODEM
implementations can be configured
to prevent that behavior.) A revi-
sion to CommLib, version 4.0, will
be available in early 1993 that ad-
dresses these ZMODEM issues, and
expands on the library’s already
rich set of functions.
Greenleaf has made it remarkably
easy to write C programs with fully
functional communications fea-
tures. With CommLib, even aver-
age C programmers can produce
efficient serial applications.
Greenleaf CommLib Asynchro-
nous Communications Library
for C, Version 3.20 - $359 including
source code. Greenleaf Software Inc. ,
16479 Dallas Parkway, Suite 570,
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voice; (214)250-3778 BBS.
SHAREWARE FAX
UTILITIES FOR
NETWORKS
By Thom Foulks
This is a Runtime Review of
FAXPak NetShare and the
FAXPak utilities, shareware soft-
ware that expands the flexibility of
an Intel SatisFAXtion modem.
It’s been nearly two years since I
installed a SatisFAXtion fax/mo-
dem card in the ‘386SX clone which
operates my BBS. It has improved
my productivity, and saved the cost
of installing yet another phone line
to handle fax traffic. The fax card
does just fine at handling BBS us-
ers from its data modem, and han-
dling incoming fax transmissions
from it fax component — all on one
card, all integrated.
And, for more than a year, I’ve
shared the fax portion of that card
across a LANtastic local area net-
work — realtime! Yes, I can sit at
any LAN workstation and tell
SatisFAXtion to send a fax out my
BBS telephone line.
Prowling around CompuServe one
night, I found a FAXPak NetShare
trial demo, written expressly for
Intel’s SatisFAXtion and its prede-
cessor Connection Coprocessor.
NetShare provides a TSR — memory
resident — program that is con-
stantly checking for fax requests on
a network, and sends them out, on
schedule. It can turn any network
file server into a fax server, as well.
Yet, NetShare is priced at just
$79...$$$ below the cost of commer-
cial products promising the same
flexibility.
FAXPak NetShare includes two
variations of its utility. One is in-
tended for a machine whose sole
purpose is a fax server, doing noth-
ing but sending and receiving fax
transmissions for the users of a lo-
cal area network. The other ver-
sion, which is available for a free 60-
day trial, is in-
tended as I use my
machine, for sev-
eral purposes. If
I tell
NetShare
to send a fax
while there
is someone
logged onto
the BBS of
that machine,
FAXPak sits and
waits until the user
has logged off and the line is clear.
The program also prepares a log of
fax transmission activity which can
be accessed by any workstation on
the network, so that all network
users can determine their fax traffic
has been handled as they com-
manded.
There is also a multiboard version
of NetShare, which supports in-
stalling up to four fax cards in the
fax server PC for higher volume
capabilities. Cost, $199. As noted,
my use is with LANtastic 4.1. The
46-page documentation provides
step-by-step instructions for instal-
lation with Novell Netware, as well.
The FAXPak Utilities package is a
separate collection of programs
which provide DOS command line
control for SatisFAXtion and other
CAS-compatible fax boards. As a
simple example, typing “FPSEND
myfile.txt 719-528-8545” at the
command prompt from your ma-
chine would send the file
“myfile.txt” to my combined BBS/
Fax server. Other FAXPak com-
mands allow displaying and print-
ing of the fax log, deleting entries
from the log, turning on and off the
auto answer feature, monitoring
“realtime” activity of the fax board,
viewing fax files, etc.
The utilities are written with an
“open” architecture, so that they
can used in conjunction with other
software. They can be commanded
from a .BAT file; or dBASE and
Clipper programmers can easily link
36 Boardwatch - December 1992
LOCATHA INDUSTRIES, INC
Each field of combat is uniquely generated
at the beginning of every challenge.
Choose your vehicle of terror
from a catalog of 12 devastating mechs.
Say Hello to BATTLE GRID©...
SAY GOODBYE TO ANSI!
Virtual Worlds
For technical or
registration
support
concerning
BATTLE
GRID please
call our main
support BBS.
2400bps
(904) 388-4614
USR HST
(904) 388-4610
V.32/V.42
(904) 388-4603
CompuComm
(904) 388-4602
Voice Call
(904) 387-9796
The
Swap Shop
You can
also call
our main
technical
support
BBS at
(904) 737-7723.
Through your mech's cockpit and onboard computer
displays, you relentlessly stalk your opponent.
fjius D&n
VisalMastercard welcome
Select multiple background musical scores to play
while you battle to become ruler of the grid.
You and your opponents represent opposing Alliances fighting for control of the earth in the BATTLE GRID. The battle will be fought between
huge machines called Mechs. Hide behind mountains, then maneuver around rivers to capture your opponent's land. But stay alert and keep a vigilant eye
open for the enemy. He may be trying to take your land out from under you. Or he may be lying in wait; looking for an opportunity to ambush you!
BATTLE GRID is a graphical online door compatible with PCboard, \XAX/IV, Telegard, Wildcat, RBBS, and most all major BBS programs. It supports
12 sound output devices including Soundblaster, Disney Sound Source, and many others. It is completely Network (NOVEL, LANTASTIC, NETBIOS), DesqView,
and Microsoft Windows compatible with EGA/VGA HiRes graphics.
For a free version of BATTLE GRID© call 1 - 900 - 860-2677 ($4.25 billed directly to your phone for Shipping & Handling)
— OR —
To Register/Download, Call Virtual World BBS at (904) 338-4614, (904) 388-4610 or Locatha Industries, Inc. at (904) 241-6301.
All aforementioned products are the registered trademarks and copyrights of their respective holders.
them to a database application.
The FAXPak Utilities are available
in three different versions: A lim-
ited-function free “trial” edition
available for download from many
BBSs, a “standard” edition — $39
— for registered users, and an “ad-
vanced” edition — $79 — providing
additional features (such as sup-
port for multiple fax boards in the
same machine). The utilities pack-
age comes with a well -written 36-
page .DOC file, filled with usage
examples, and ready to print.
For readers who may be surprised
(as I was) at the comparative low
cost of the FAXPak products, ac-
cording to author, J eff Hoffstetter of
Longmont, CO. “My software is de-
signed to do what it does. It does not
do all the things that tend to make
other products much higher-priced.
For example, I don’t have anyway
for you to run any application that
you want and simply fax from within
that application. Some of the more
expensive products may have that
capability. And besides which, I’m a
small guy so I’ve got to have a small
price, right?” Note also that no di-
rect support for Microsoft Windows
3.x is offered by FAXPak’s offerings.
(By the way: Don’t confuse the
“FAXPak” name with a bundled
collection of fax software from
Delrina Technology. Hoffstetter had
copyrighted the name prior to
Delrina’s national ad blitz of its
bundle. But that’s another story.)
A cautionary note: FAXPak
shareware is written only for fax
cards that use the CAS transmis-
sion standards, as originated by
Intel. It will not work with other
cards. FAXPak is available for down-
load on CompuServe in the Intel
area (GO INTELFORUM) Or, it
may be downloaded directly from
the FAXPak support BBS at
(303)772-6778 (look for
FAXPAKTE.EXE and
FPNSTE.EXE — “TE”, Trial Edi-
tion.) Jeff Hofstetter, 1722 Drake
Street, Longmont, CO 80503, USA.
(303)440-7683 voice; (303)651-
1161 fax; (303)772-6778 BBS. e-
mail: 70365.110@compuserve.com.
Intel has a FAXBACK information
service providing information about
their fax/modem products. Dial
(800)525-3019 (503-629-7586 for
international callers) and request
document number 9416 for infor-
mation on their 14.4kbps
SatisFAXtion Modem/400 or
document 4019 for an overview
“Understanding PC Fax mo-
dems.’Tntel PCEO, 5200 N.E. Elam
Young Parkway, Hillsboro, OR
97124; (800)538-3373 or (503)629-
7354 voice; (503)629-7580 fax;
(503)645-6275 BBS.
[Thom Foulks has served as a com-
puter consultant , founding host of
Computing Success! radio show, and
columnist. Foulks also wrote his own
Message Huh BBS software pack-
age and operates the Cache la Byte
Hub BBS at (719)528-8545. - Ed]
QMODEM-PRO
RELEASED
Mustang Software, Inc. has released
the latest update to John Friel’s
popular Qmodem terminal commu-
nications program. Characterized
as a “complete rewrite” of the pro-
gram from the previous Qmodem
version 5.0, the company has retitled
the offering Qmodem-Pro. It’s
available in retail stores at a sug-
gested retail price of $99. Over 250
Software Etc. stores typically dis-
count that price.
The new version represents some-
what of a new direction for terminal
programs. The last release of
Qmodem included the OLX offline
mail reader - which derived from
Greg Hewgill’s popular Silly Little
Mail Reader (SLMR). It was the
first popular terminal program to
include an offline mail function sup-
porting Sparky Herrings .QWK
message File format. Between
Mustangs Wildcat BBS software
and a third party door program titled
Tomcat, the OLX offline mail reader
supports some features going be-
yond simple e-mail - including, for
example, message file attachments.
The company later was rumored to
be releasing an all encompassing e-
mail manager titled Midnight
Mail. We didn’t hear further about
this program, which was supposed
to allow users to manage mail from
a variety of services through one
interface.
38 Boardwatch - December 1992
THE COPS AND
THE HACKERS
WENT EYEBAL
TO-EYEBALL.
NOBODY
BLINKED.
THE HACKER
CRACKDOWN
Praise from . . .
COMPUTER COPS:
"Fascinating."
—Steven R. Purdy,
U.S. Secret Service
HACKERS:
"1 learned a lot of things
1 didn't know from this book."
— "Lex Luthor," Legion of Doom
THE INDUSTRY:
1 LAW AND DISORDER
|oN THE ELECTRONIC FRONTIER
"You must read this book
for the real story."
BRUCE STERLING
CO-AUTHOR OF THE DIFFERENCE ENGINE
—Mitchell Kapor,
Lotus Development Corp.
m A BANTAM
~ HARDCOVER
This keys on a growing problem for
many denizens of the information
matrix. Some are inundated with e-
mail from a wide variety of sources
- CompuServe, MCI Mail, Internet
mail, electronic bulletin boards, etc.
Just to go pick up, read, respond to,
and send replies to your daily elec-
tronic mail can consume a couple of
hours in some cases and if you get a
day or two behind - consider chang-
ing your name and getting all new
accounts.
Qmodem-Pro appears to bring all
this to ground. The program allows
users to retrieve, read, and respond
to mail from MCI Mail,
CompuServe, any BBS, and other
e-mail sources and deal with it all
through a single e-mail database.
You can not only reply offline, but
actually redirect mail from a
CompuServe account, for example,
to a different account on another
service, bulletin board, or even fax
machine. Between the e-mail man-
ager and the terminal program, a
very powerful combination emerges
to manage electronic mail. It may
not cut the volume, but it reduces
the mechanics of dealing with mul-
tiple accounts to a manageable level.
The mail manager includes a num-
ber of niceties, including a spelling
checker, a text search feature, drop
down windows, and cut and paste
between messages. One feature that
may find some application is “skip
lists”. You can define TO, FROM,
or SUBJECT filters that just skip
messages from a particular person
or on a particular subject for ex-
ample. This could lead to a mass
movement of whole groups of people
ignoring each other online - prob-
ably a good thing.
Over 75 new features are incorpo-
rated in the upgrade, supporting
MSFs claim that it is a total rewrite
from version 5.0. The terminal pro-
gram now allows users to fax ASCII
text or .PCX files directly using any
of the dozens of fax modems now on
the market. Dialing directories now
support up to 4095 entries per “book”
and you can have an unlimited num-
ber of different books. MCI Mail and
CompuServe gateways enable us-
ers to grab mail without separate
programs. The program was re-
leased November 1. The company
claims 80,000 registered Qmodem
users. They also sport some 15,000
registered users of their Wildcat!
BBS software package. Mustang
Software, Inc., PO Box 2264, Bakers-
field, CA 93303; ( 805 ) 395-0223
voice; ( 805 ) 395-0713 fax; ( 805 ) 395 -
0650 BBS
03-29-92 * GUEN B
09-20-92 (15*1
DEMIS EDMONDi
GUEN BARNES
Eluis HUES ?|
ines
list
list
ect list
lev file
Eluis HUES !!
TANG (54) MS I QMODEM
Meanwhile... In Powell Riuer we are just about to settle in for
winter. I nowed the lawn yesterday and put away the lawn furnature.
Going to buy oil for the furnace next week. Still looking for a
watch that plays Hey Jude.
■ OLX 2.2 ■ Neuer use a preposition to end a sentence with.
■ MSI Support NET: Discovery Passage 604-485-7301/4813
JL
-Help | Uiev/edit the address book
40 Boardwatch - December 1992
Your daily business routine could be turned upside down
by an interrupted modem transmission. One moment
you’re sending or receiving data, the next moment you’re
fuming. Has the Escape Sequence used by your modem
just interrupted your transmission?
While our real world examples of interrupted trans-
missions due to escape sequences have been limited to
our BBS and Hayes’ own data files, our analysis is based
on the theoretical possibility that you can experience
this situation in your business. Will you be the one who
proves our theory?
ONE WAY TO AVOID TRANSMISSION FAILURE.
The Hayes Improved Escape Sequence With Guard Time,
the industry-standard patented technology that’s proven
reliable for over a decade, is one way to
count on reliable data transmission.
You’ll find it in all Hayes modems and
in other licensed modems that have
this symbol on their packaging.
Although it doesn’t mean full Hayes
compatibility, it does ensure that
products displaying this symbol use
the patented Hayes technology.
THE WHITEPAPER. We’ve
developed an informative White
Paper titled “The Issue Of The
Reliable Modem Escape Sequence.”
The paper discusses escape sequences and these
possibilities. For a FREE copy, call 800-374-8388,
FAX your request to 404-729-6650, or download the
paper from the Hayes BBS. Call or fax us today for your
copy of the White Paper. i|
Because your world is hectic m Hayes
enough without being for less?
ambushed by a modem Hayes products have the computer
with an attitude. world talking. More than ever.
IMPIOVII fSCHPl SflKNCl
Go Online with Hayes BBS; call 800-874-2937 or 404446-6336
©1992 Hayes Microcomputer Products, Inc., P.O. Box 105203, Atlanta, GA 30348
NAPLPS GRAPHICS
GAINS LEGS
The drive toward an online graph-
ics standard allowing electronic
bulletin boards based on ever
cheaper PC compatible equipment
continues to grow legs. A number of
elements are contributing to this
desire for pretty pictures. Large com-
mercial services such as Prodigy,
America Online, and to a lesser
degree CompuServe, are trying to
differentiate themselves from the
growing market in small BBS ser-
vices by offering very graphic pro-
prietary interfaces. This is a good
strategy in that there are more
people who AREN’T online than
there are who are, and they can
virtually cede the entire online popu-
lation to bulletin boards and still be
a step ahead if they can capture the
9000 new callers coming online for
the first time each day. The barriers
to getting online on the average
BBS are still too technical for much
of the population and this point and
click interfaces make it easier. The
existing BBS world is not inclined to
cede that market based on technol-
ogy.
Beyond ease of learning and ease of
use, there are a lot of things BBS
callers and operators yen for that
the ASCII/ANSI world can’t pro-
vide. Since the first BBS, designers
have been stringing together char-
acters on screen to simulate larger
character sets. The basic ANSI or
ASCII screen offers one type size,
but the resulting menus look like
lists where the things that need
emphasis receive the same treat-
ment as ancilliary items. The scuba
diving resource database the BBS is
built around has the same visual
impact as the utility menu used to
change your password. From the
beginning, screen designers have
tried to glom groups of alphabet
characters, IBM graphic characters,
and anything else available in the
character set into larger charac-
ters. The results are usually disap-
pointingly blocky, malformed char-
acters. So emphasis of important
items is difficult.
As the online world grows increas-
ingly global, the problems of inter-
national language prompts have
largely been addressed by BBS soft-
ware vendors. But the problem of
international alphabet sets has not,
and there are some thorny issues
here. In many languages, the al-
phabet cannot be contained in the
255 characters provided in an 8-bit
set. Japanese online aficionados use
terminal and BBS software that
provides two-character or 16-bit
character sets to represent a fuller
range of characters.
And ultimately, a picture is worth a
thousand words. Online catalogs
need to be able to display products
visually in a near approximation of
reality. And the concept of commu-
nicating with other people by elec-
tronic mail and conferences will take
on a new character if we can simply
see what each of the correspondents
looks like. E-mail with attached
photo is not far away.
All of this has been true for some
time, but the communication con-
nection has been so hampered by
the slow speed of the link - typically
2400 bps, that no one wanted to
trade speed for beauty. With the
cost of 14,400 bps modems in free
fall, and increasing numbers ofboth
BBS operators and callers strap-
ping on the newer faster cheaper
iron, the channel begins to afford
the additional data to do graphics.
But like all jumps forward online,
online graphics faces the problem
that at this point, approximately all
callers already have terminal pro-
grams that DON’T support higher
graphics capability. If you DID set
up a BBS offering such graphics,
very nearly none of your callers can
see it, and indeed just having it
available can complicate the life of
both caller and BBS operator.
Into this standoff rode Dave Hughes
Sr. , a retired Army Colonel hell bent
on bringing education online. To do
so, he needed an interface capable
of spelling out what was what in
math, science, and other subjects
and ASCII/AN SI wasn’t making the
trip. At FidoCon91 in Denver last
year, he gave a rousing presenta-
tion on something called NAPLPS
he has championed for some time as
the future graphic interface online.
NAPLPS stands for the North
American Presentation Level Pro-
tocol Syntax. It was designed for the
encoding of alpha-numeric, alpha-
mosaic, alpha-geometric, and alpha-
photographic constructs for display
terminals. The main point recom-
mending it is that it is already a
documented, published standard
blessed and holy watered by the
American National Standards In-
stitute (ANSI) as ANSI-X3.110-
1983. It’s also adopted by the Cana-
dian Standards Association as CSA-
T500-1983.
In practice, NAPLPS, like ANSI,
ASCII, and even Postscript, is sim-
ply files containing ordinary text.
But the text represents geometric
shapes, colors, font sizes, text, and
even bit-mapped photographic im-
ages. At the terminal end, this is
decoded to direct screen displays.
Since it isn’t connected to any par-
ticular screen size, resolution, or
aspect ratio, a NAPLPS decoder is
possible for virtually any device ca-
pable of graphics at all. In this way,
the same data file could be viewed
by Amiga, Macintosh, IBM, or vir-
tually any computer system.
NAPLPS also supports interna-
tional data sets and through the use
of DRCS tables, special character
sets for mathematics, foreign lan-
guages, etc. These tables allow the
host system to transmit extensions
to the caller that are then used to
decode specialized transmissions.
In this way, NAPLPS is extensible
to handle future graphic problems
as they arise.
42 Boardwatch - December 1992
CEC Rack Systems.
The Right Choice No Matter
How You Stack Them.
CEC introduces a new reliable,
affordable rack system for your
BBS and Network requirements.
Each rack comes with either a
286-16, 386-16, or 386-40
processor with floppy drive. A
3te" hard drive is also mountable
in each unit.
But if you already have proces-
sors and simply need to orga-
nize them, you can still use our
racks. Each CEC Rack can be
stacked up to 5 high (7 ft.) and
house up to 20 processors effi-
ciently. Each one is built in the
US to rigid, durable standards,
and backed by over 30 years of
CEC computer experience. We
can even work with you to cus-
tomize a rack system to meet
your specific needs.
Call us today. We're the right
choice for all of your rack needs.
/r\
I k 1 Computers Efficiently, Inc.
VI M 208 East 51 Street
~ M r New York, N.Y. 1 0022
212-885-0791 • BBS: 212-885-3101
Is NAPLPS then the graphics pro-
tocol for the future? Perhaps. But it
does have some drawbacks.
NAPLPS files are typically quite
small (4-6 KB or less) and the data
is plain text. As this data is trans-
mitted from one system to another,
if a couple of characters get mangled
in the process, the resulting screen
can be quite horribly mangled as
well. With the increase in V.42bis
modems, this is not quite as much of
a problem as it was, but V.42bis is
not nearly as bullet proof as modem
manufacturers might have you be-
lieve. Noise on telephone lines is
still part of the game.
But the biggest drawback hamper-
ing NAPLPS is the dearth of tools
for using it. Primary among the
needed cutlery is a terminal pro-
gram of some weight that decodes
NAPLPS transmissions. Microstar
Software Ltd. has been making
NAPLPS tools for some years and in
fact, did the Prodigy interface. They
have released, at Dave Hughes Sr.’s
urging, a shareware version of their
Personality Plus III NAPLPS ter-
minal program. It is widely avail-
able for download as
PP3SHARE.EXE. But on features
such as file transfer protocols, other
terminal emulations beyond VT-100
(without IBM graphics) and
NAPLPS, this program is not re-
motely competitive as a general
purpose terminal program with
BitCom or PC Talk, much less the
current darlings of the online world,
Procomm, Telix, and Qmodem. And
until a significant terminal program
picks up NAPLPS, there just can’t
be a caller base for a NAPLPS BBS.
Rumor has it that there have been
some behind the scenes feelers from
terminal program developers, but
Microstar has apparently decided
their MVDI decoder asset is worth
all the gold in the hills and an agree-
ment with any major terminal de-
veloper at this point looks very un-
likely.
Also needed are screen design tools.
Again, Microstar has done what
they could with a program titled
Microstar Graphics Editor (MGE),
widely available for download as
MGESHARE.EXE. But whether it’s
just that we don’t understand this
program, or whatever, it is less than
intuitive to use. What’s needed are
conversion utilities to take the out-
put of popular graphic design pack-
ages and convert one of their avail-
able outputs to NAPLPS format.
Corel Draw currently seems to be
the top of the heap. And their vector
graphic format would lend itself to
conversion much more efficiently
than trying to convert bit-mapped
files such as .PCX and .GIF images
to NAPLPS described frames.
For the bulletin board software ven-
dors themselves, the conversion is a
bit easier. They currently transmit
ASC II text to some callers , and AN SI
text to others quite readily. Callers
can toggle between the two modes
at will. Adding a third mode that
again transmits text out the port is
not too serious a chore. And for
areas like file directories and mes-
sage editors where the structure of
a standard 80 column text screen is
an advantage, NAPLPS allows them
to switch NAPLPS off by transmit-
ting a hex IB, 25, and 41 character
series and switch it back on when
you leave the editor by transmitting
a hex IB, 25, and 40 character se-
ries. In this way, you can view a
NAPLPS menu, select a message
editor that works in ASCII or ANSI,
and when you leave the editor you
are back at a NAPLPS menu.
And some progress has been made.
One of the most promising develop-
ments is a package for TBBS sys-
tems by Randy Harris of Harris
Technology Associates in
Framingham, Massachusetts. Har-
ris has put together a package con-
taining System Definition Language
constructs, the MicroStar Graphics
Editor (non shareware) and the
PP3SHARE terminal program, that
Boardwatch - December 1992 43
=
Main Menu
-
Prev Menu
$
Logoff Now
COMMAND
Read About NRPLOG
l\ L li U NH P LP S
MtZSSMGL S
S C It li U li I? L I s S
MU S S RC L r S
L L liU L li HI’ LI’S
HlESSliGL
C o mm and
allows TBBS operators to put up
NAPLPS as an option for their callers
in a day. The package is priced at $ 169
total and the TBBS host system can
still handle regular ASCII and ANSI
callers without dropping a byte.
His system, Harris Technology Asso-
ciates BBS, is available at (508)877-
7233. You can logon to the system and
press N from the main menu to go to
an area devoted to NAPLPS. You’ll
have to download and install the
PP3SHARE.EXE file to be able to
view the NAPLPS area. Once you
install it and dial back into the sys-
tem, you can turn NAPLPS graphics
on from a menu. The change in ap-
pearance of Harris’s board is remark-
able. Different size fonts, animations,
and more. The problem with this
package, again, the terminal program
is limp - it doesn’t support even basic
file transfer protocols in any usable
way. And Harris’s system uses a DIF-
FERENT technique (probably the cor-
rect one actually) to switch between
NAPLPS and ASCII than Alan
McNamee’s terminal program we
wrote about in a previous issue.
Harris’s program is currently offered
by Pete White of GW Associates. Har-
ris Technology Associates, 12 Pin-
ewood Drive, Framingham, MA 01701;
(508)877-5433 voice; (508)877-7233
BBS.
You can also dial Microstar’s system
at (613)727-5272. This is a Remote
Access system and does not at this
point automatically switch your ter-
minal program between modes. You
must manually make the change with
the ALT-F9 key. But they have a
demonstration game on the system
we found fascinating. It’s called Fall-
ing Blocks, but it looks quite like the
popular TETRIS game. And the ac-
tion and presentation look like a glim-
mer of what’s to come in the future
with online graphics.
On the terminal end, Microstar also
seems to be the only game in town
with regards to a NAPLPS decoder.
And we’ve heard rumors that almost
everyone who has contacted them to
44 Boardwatch - December 1992
license the technology has some in-
credible stories to tell. Apparently
Microstar has decided that there’s
gold in them thar’ hills somewhere
and can’t do a deal with anyone for
fear they’re going to let some of it
slip through their fingers. For now,
they own it and they’re sitting on it.
That’s traditionally just the sort of
strategy that causes software com-
panies to lose their clothes to 14
year-old shareware authors. But
market forces tend to sort these
matters out rather nicely over time.
There are other approaches to online
graphics and next month we’re go-
ing to take a closer look at a couple
of the more promising comers.
SEARCHLIGHT BBS ADDS
MULTILINE DIGIBOARD
SUPPORT
Searchlight Software has an-
nounced a new version 2.25D of
their Searchlight BBS software to
support up to 10 nodes on a single
PC at port rates of up to 38,400 bps
per second using DigiChannel
multiport communications hard-
ware from Digi International, Inc.
The new version is designed to work
under multitasking software such
as DESQview, Windows, or OS/2.
The product can support high speed
data rates in this environment by
taking advantage of some of the
features of an eight-port
DigiChannel COM/8i, PC/8e, or
PC/8i multiport serial card. The
new Searchlight version is designed
to work with a non-interrupt device
driver from Digi International that
allows use of the normal COM1 and
COM2 at the same time.
According to the author, Frank
Larosa, they've actually tested the
software on up to 16 lines from a
single PC, but feel that 10 lines are
the maximum they can support with
confidence at the high data rates.
The new version requires an 80386
or 80486 machine.
M
u
MESS flG E HREf) MENU
FILE HRER MENU
CONFERENCING MENU
USER UT IL. I TV MENU
~*] \
liecli order ccnieiiis enough
spices for e chili dinner/ end
then some!
feckeued in e rusiic wooden
oci house, I? humeruus, L>ui
useful gift ides.
1-800-955-4839
-Press Any Key-
. CALL AND ORDER SOME TODAY!
Boardwatch - December 1992 45
Copyright (CUV*? MARI'S TECHWOUBif fi.vwci ates. oil right! reserved
The new Searchlight 2.25D is avail-
able to all currently registered 2.25
owners at no cost. Unlimited li-
censes are available at $399, up to
10 users is priced at $299, 3 users at
$179, and the single line version at
$99.
Searchlight has gained some fol-
lowing as a very easy to install and
operate BBS package. It offers a
very attractive ANSI interface first
time callers find easy to use and a
fully configurable menuing system
allowing BBS operators to tailor
their system.
Searchlight Software, PO Box 640,
Stony Brook, NY ; (516)751-2966
voice; (516)689-2566 BBS.
LEGALLY
ONLINE
BOOK REVIEW: THE
HACKER CRACKDOWN,
BY BRUCE STERLING
reviewed by Lance Rose
BBS’ are neither good nor bad. They
are general-purpose tools, protean
and malleable like the personal com-
puters on which they run, and put
to many fascinating uses. In The
Hacker Crackdown , journalist
and sci-fi author Bruce Sterling
gives us a clear bead on a range of
shady BBS and computer network
activities never before glimpsed as
a whole, as strange and exotic to
most of us as the wondrous inhabit-
ants of the dark sea depths.
Early in the book, Sterling proclaims
that, “the crackdown itself, first and
foremost, was about bulletin board
systems.” What was this “crack-
down?” Simply put, it was a series of
arrests, raids and prosecutions of
computer hackers and other “digi-
tal underground” members (includ-
ing many owners of supposedly un-
derground BBS’) by assorted fed-
eral agents and prosecutors during
the year 1990. The crackdown
served notice on our electronic com-
munity that cops now walk the net-
work beat to protect our fine up-
standing network citizens. Just who
counts as a “good citizen”, and who
doesn’t, is one of the themes of the
book.
With painstaking care, Sterling ex-
amines the historical, social and
technological threads that led to the
formation of the so-called electronic
frontier, and then to the crackdown.
These include the explosion of new
telephone system capabilities upon
the introduction of computer
switches and terminals; the emer-
gence of a class and culture of people
46 Boardwatch * December 1992
(mostly young) who could remotely
manipulate telephone and computer
systems with the aid of their per-
sonal computers; a mad scramble
by the telephone companies and
government authorities to cut off
this new threat to institutional
power; and the rise of new civil
libertarians determined to prevent
the trampling of our Constitutional
freedoms amidst all the madness.
Throughout the book runs a twist-
ing, absurd (and time) plot in which
almost all the various crackdown
events occur along a line defined in
time and space by the travels of a
pilfered computer file describing bu-
reaucratic telephone company op-
erations relating to the 911 emer-
gency system.
Sterling’s work has a sociological
bent. He imparts a tribal flavor to
the various groups and cultures he
investigates: the “underground”
hackers and their associates, the
computer cops, the paranoid tele-
phone company security folks, the
new technoid civil libertarians. For
most of the book they are decidedly
warring tribes.
The book’s sociological perspective
also allows for a deep understand-
ing of the forces at play in the net-
work underground, surpassing the
insights commonly offered by online
armchair psychologists. For ex-
ample, bragging about illicit net-
work exploits is a standard fixture
of youthful hacker culture. What
Sterling found is that they cannot
turn it off. Hackers who are really
full of themselves have been known
to call up the foremost computer
cops in the world and brag right at
them. Some even brag about their
exploits upon being arrested. This
turns out to have been one of the
more significant dynamic forces in
the hacker crackdown, enablinggov-
emment agents to gather a great
deal of useful information on the
hackers without much trouble. The
hackers’ world may be dark and
shadowy, but they’re not hard to
track down when they’re chattering
like monkeys. Many of them practi-
cally turn themselves in.
The hacker and cop world is full of
subterfuge, intrigue and betrayal.
Not necessarily a “frontier” at all in
the sense of Western-movie big sky
and wide open country, but more
like a swirling tropical jungle full of
hyped-up wild kids, sneaking
thieves, virtuous warriors, imperi-
ous shamans, expert trackers . . .
Sure signs of civilization and de-
cency only appear at the end of the
book, as Sterling engages with the
civil libertarians.
The book profiles many major fig-
ures and events in this new field.
There are extended discussions and
interviews with prosecutor Gail
Thackeray, Electronic Frontier
Foundation founders John Barlow
and Mitch Kapor and counsel Mike
Godwin, federal computer crime
investigation trainer Carlton
Fitzpatrick, hackers Phiber Optick
and Mentor, master computer cryp-
tographer Dorothy Denning, and
many others. The major crackdown
events of 1990 are also detailed at
length and set in context, including
the abortive seizure of the BBS of
“GURPS Cyberpunk” game pub-
lisher Steve Jackson Games, and
the show trial of electronic newslet-
ter publisher “Knight Lightning”
for accepting and publishing sup-
posedly confidential stolen mate-
rial.
Sterling approaches his subject at
all times with great humility, genu-
ine curiosity, and constant striving
for objectivity. This is an admirable
feat, especially for a writer who
often needs to function as overlord
in any number of his own science
fiction universes. The book shuttles
frequently between the first and
third person, relating the objective
story, then Sterling’s own travels
and encounters in the course of fig-
uring it all out, and back again to
the facts.
In fact, Sterling’s immersion in his
subject, which grows as the book
progresses, is remarkable. He tries
out “trashing” (a common hacker
activity of searching other people’s
trash for useful information) him-
self while passing some time at a
computer cop convention. He com-
pares an imagined enemy conjured
up by a homeless person he meets
on the streets of Phoenix with bo-
geymen “specters” haunting the
psyches of the different groups work-
ing, playing and warring within the
networks. By the end of the book,
he’s comparing a toy-soldier depic-
tion of an old battle that he sees
within the Bunker Hill monument
with modern simulation games
( such as produced by Steve J ackson
Games, and as often beloved by
youthful hackers), and comparing
Lotus’ acquisition of rights to
Visicalc (the predecessor to Lotus’
own 1-2-3 software package) to the
Bell System’s purchase of its prede-
cessor Western Union.
But there’s a point to Sterling’s
seemingly unhealthy obsession with
marginally relevant coincidences.
He’s showing that in the course of
figuring out all these network char-
acters, he’s become one himself, and
that the conflicts and activities
within the electronic networks both
can overlay and be stimulated by
the physical world around you once
you are sufficiently attuned to the
action. This insight helps explain
the obsessive and irrational ways in
Boardwatch - December 1992 47
ONE BBSCON 1992
□ WELCOME Welcome to ONE BBSCON - Phil Becker
□ KEYNOTE Keynote Speech - John C. Dvorak
EH BBS1 Education - Alternate Models Online - Dave Hughes
□ BBS2 Legal Issues for Bulletin Board Operators - Lance Rose
□ BBS3 Electronic Frontier Foundation - Shari Steele
□ BBS4 Introduction to FidoNet - George Peace
EH BBS5 BBSing for Profit I - Jack Rickard, Phil Becker
□ BBS6 Telix Communications Software - Jeff Woods
□ BBS7 Democracy Online I - Jim C. Warren
□ BBSS Iconic Macintosh BBS Systems - Michael Bean
EH BBS9 Using Wildcat 3.5 with Doors - Livecat - Steve Cox
EH BBS 10 Mac Connectivity - Bernard Aboba
□ BBS1 1 Using Robocomm to Automate Your BBS - Michael Simmons
□ BBS 12 BBSing for Profit II - Jack Rickard, Phil Becker
D BBS 13 Introduction to ILINK Network - Jim Lee
□ BBS 14 Democracy Online II - Jim C. Warren
EH BBS 15 OS/2 and Communications - Dave Whittle
EH BBS 16 USRobotics Modem Presentation - Adam Strack
EH BBS 17 International Communications - Dave Hughes
EH BBS 18 Searchlight BBS Introduction - Frank LaRosa
EH BBS 19 CD-ROMs and BBSs - George Peace
EH BBS20 MacBBS File Management - Michael Bean
EH BBS21 Wildcat! MHS Gateway - Scott Hunter, Jim Harrer
EH BBS22 Running Your Board Like a Media Business - Wes Kussmaul
EH BBS23 NAPLPS Graphics Techniques - Dave Hughes
Q BBS24 BBS Host Service Bureaus - James Appleby
EH BBS25 TBBS Version 2.2 Overview - Phil Becker
EH BBS26 Offline X-Press Ver. 3 - Rick Heming, Greg Hewgill
EH BBS27 EFF National Public Data Net Proposal - Shari Steele
EH BBS28 Credit Card Merchant Accounts for BBSs - Tim Pfeiffer
EH BBS29 Mac File Distribution Network - Alan Heflich
EH BBS30 Graphics Technologies Roundtable - Dave Hughes
EH BBS31 Wildcat! Ver. 3.5 Introduction - Jim Harrer
EH BBS32 Copyright and Trademark Law for BBSs - Lance Rose
EH BBS33 TBBS Menu Design Workshop - Karl Glasgow IV
EH BBS34 Product Support BBSs - Business Perspective - Randy Cooper
EH BBS35 Wildcat! Ver. 3.5 and FidoNet - Derek Koopowitz
CH BBS36 Using PCBoard Under DESQview - Fred Clark
EH BBS37 Offline Mail Readers, Qmail, 1st Reader - Mark Herring
□ BBS38 PROCOMM PLUS for Windows - Phil James
EH BBS39 Major BBS Introduction - Tim Stryker
EH BBS40 TBBS and FidoNet - Alan Bryant
EH BBS41 Database Design for BBSs - Bruce Woodward
□ BBS42 BBS Success Roundtable - Kevin Behrens
EH BBS43 Using DESQview - Michael Chapman
EH BBS44 Telefinder Macintosh BBS Software - Rusty Tucker
EH BBS45 Cash by Phone, 900/976 BBS Apps. - Scott Brinker
EH BBS46 The Future of NREN/Intemet Roundtable - Tim Pozar
EH BBS47 Running a Sunscription BBS for Profit - Jim Pierce
□ BBS48 Qmodem Ver. 6.0 - John Friel III, Rick Heming
EH BBS49 Censorship, Control, Privacy Roundtable - Lance Rose
□ BBS50 Novalink Macintosh BBS Software - Len Anderson
EH BBS5 1 Serial Port and Modem Basics - Phil Becker
EH BBS52 Major BBS Menus, Security - Scott Brinker
□ BBS53 SEAmail - Thom Henderson
□ BBS55 Major BBS and LANs - Bob Stein
□ BBS56 PRO Utilities for Wildcat! Ver. 3.5 - Greg Hewgill, Rick Heming
□ BBS57 Contracts and Relationships for BBSs - Lance Rose
□ BBS58 Hayes Microcomputer Products Presentation - Dennis Hayes
D BBS59 Publicity and Press Coverage for BBSs - Sheri C. Robert
Audio Tape Order Form
EH BBS60 First Class Macintosh BBS Software - Maury Markowitz
EH BBS61 Introduction to Internet - Tim Pozar
D BBS62 FidoNet Alternatives for Macintosh - Bernard Aboba
EH BBS63 Searchlight Menu Design - Frank LaRosa
□ BBS64 PCBoard Ver. 14.5a BBS Software Introduction - Fred Clark
EH BBS65 Wildcat! and Novell LANs - Joseph Martin
EH BBS66 TBBS - Future Directions - Phil Becker
EH BBS67 Creating a Business Plan for BBSs - Simon Clement
□ BBS68 Internet Connection Basics - Tim Pozar
EH BBS69 Introduction to Coconet - Brian Dear
EH BBS70 PCBoard and LANs - Fred Clark
EH BBS71 Internet Host Accounts - Dave Menges
EH BBS72 Chat/Social BBS Success Roundtable - Scott Brinker
□ BBS73 Using Wildcat! Ver. 3.5 with CD-ROMs - Troy Getty
□ BBS74 Computer Press View of the Online World - David Coursey
EH BBS75 Mail Systems Roundtable - Fred Clark, David Terry
EH BBS76 UFGATE Intemet/FidoNet Gateway - Tim Pozar
D BBS78 Major BBS Third Party Developers Conference - Tim Stryker
EH BBS79 TDBS Database Design Techniques - Alan Bryant
EH BBS80 uuPCB Internet to PCBoard Utility - (Speaker Unknown)
□ BBS8I Searchlight Networking - Frank LaRosa
□ BBS82 PCBoard PCBComm - Fred Clark
EH BBS83 BBS/Telephone Company Roundtable I - Lance Rose
□ BBS84 Macintosh Tools for Internet - Steve Cisler
D BBS85 Wildcat! with Bobcat Callback Verifier - Steve Cox
EH BBS86 TEAMate BBS Software for UNIX - Bob Baskerville
□ BBS87 FSUUCP - Chris Ambler
□ BBS88 PCBoard PCBToolkit - Fred Clark
EH BBS89 BBServer - Jim Harrer
D BBS91 TBBS Option Modules - Phil Becker
EH BBS92 Online Sales and Catalog Services - Steve Nichols
EH BBS93 TDBS Developers Conference - Ben Cunningham
□ BBS94 X.25 Packet Switch Networks for BBSs - Dean Kerl, Paul Curtis
□ BBS95 A Real-Time Economic Information System - Hugh Casey
□ BBS96 Z/MAX XCHANGE BBS for UNIX - Al Lewis
□ BBS97 ResNova Interchange Protocol - Mark Hayton
EH BBS98 Corporate BBS Applications - Scott Brinker
□ BBS99 WCONVERT - Scott Brynen
D BBS 100 Customer Support BBS With Major BBS - Bob Stein
EH BBS 102 TNet - Greg Hewgill, Scott Brynen
□ BBS 103 Running a Product Support BBS With Wildcat! - Jim Harrer
EH BBS 1 05 History and Lore of BBS - Ward Christensen, Chuck Forsberg
Ordering Instructions: Place a check mark in the box next to each tape you wish
to order. Indicate the total number of tapes you are ordering below. Complete the
shipping information. Tapes are shipped via UPS, so P. O. Box addresses cannot
be used - street addresses only! Indicate payment method. If paying by check, in-
clude a check for the total amount made payable to ONE, Inc.
Mail the completed order form to:
ONE, Inc.
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or Fax this form to:
FAX: (303)693-5518
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Total Tapes: @ $6.00 Each:
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Shipping and Handling: $4.00
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Enclose Payment for Full Amount - No C.O.D.s
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Method of Payment: D VISA D MasterCard CH Check/Money Order
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FAX: (303)693-5518
1992
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which the various major online
groups interact.
Sterling’s achievement in figuring
out what the hacker crackdown re-
ally was, and how it came about,
cannot be underestimated. This is,
by far, the most complete and coher-
ent account of the modem hacker/
phone phreak phenomenon yet. As
a fairly constant observer of the
nets, I knew about large chunks of
the story before I read this book, but
they did not at all form a coherent
whole in my mind. Sterling came up
with all the missing chunks and
pieced together a fascinating and
compelling story. Anyone who wants
to learn a whole lot more about the
hackers, cops and telco people liv-
ing in our computer and telephone
networks should read this book.
SPA EDUCATES PUBLIC
ON SOFTWARE
COPYRIGHTS -NOT!
Like many others I know who have
some familiarity with computer law,
I’ve always figured that about half
of what the Software Publisher’s
Association (SPA) says about copy-
right law is true. The rest is
mystificationist propaganda de-
signed to make corporate software
users run scared from the slightest
thought of ever making a software
copy without paying someone for it.
For instance, the SPA insists to this
day that shrinkwrap licenses on
mass-market software packages are
airtight and enforceable. At the
same time, every court decision I’ve
seen so far on the subject has re-
fused to enforce such licenses! The
SPA is not quite wrong on this sub-
ject yet, since shrinkwrap license
validity must be decided on a state
by state basis; some state court
might agree with the SPA position
somewhere along the line. The is-
sue could be left arguably open for a
hundred years, with shrinkwrap li-
censes getting cut down right and
left by courts of different states, and
the SPA hanging on to its enforce-
ability rhetoric in the slim hope that
out of 50 states, it will get lucky
somewhere. Plausible arguability .
Until now, though, I never caught
the SPA in a flat-out falsehood.
A recent issue of the SPA newslet-
ter distributed to its members con-
tains an article titled “Protect Your
Copyrights, Register Software” and
subtitled “Register software within
90 days of publication or lose your
rights.” Within, it contains several
statements along the same lines,
culminating in: “if you don’t regis-
ter your software with the Copy-
There Be Light*
Still searching for the ultimate in BBS software? Then step into the
light and see more of what you’re looking for: Searchlight.
While it may be the easiest BBS you can run, Searchlight is packed
with serious features that today’s bulletin boards demand. Features
like full-screen editing, menu building, and LAN support. Full access
to your favorite BBS networks, mail readers and door software. All
accessed through an efficient, intuitive interface you and your users
will love. And Searchlight is backed by people as fanatical about
service as they are about software. So call today.
And don’t get left in the dark.
• Create your own menus!
O Unlimited multinode capacity
• Up to 10 lines per PC
O Flexible modem/COM port support
• LAN compatible
O High performance multitasking with
Windows , DESQview or OS/2
Voice Info/Orders: (804) 721-6637
Support BBS: (516) 689-2566
Boardwatch - December 1992 51
ANNOUNCING REAL TIME
GRAPHICS FOR BBS!
Fracterm 1.1 Transfers Color VGA in 4 Seconds!
The secret lies in fractally compressed image files just 5-10K in size. (640X400
24 bit VGA color). Batch Zmodem, multitasking provides continuous images.
Not just another pretty interface, FRACTERM puts an end to the character based
BBS and is the first true image based online catalogue.
•Runs on top of any BBS software - TBBS, PC Board, Wildcat!, Remote Access, etc.
•Three modules provide terminal program, software compression, and a large
database.
DEMO: Call (604) 734-5800 USR DS, Log On as FRACTERM
ffwv i LnES, INC. 800-676-3 111
right Office within 3 months, after
first publication, you cannot recover
statutory damages or attorneys
fees.” (this is a very important mat-
ter in copyright, especially attor-
neys fees - if a successful copyright
owner cannot collect attorneys fees
from the infringer, he could end up
with very little money after paying
off his own lawyer).
Now, let’s look at the actual section
of the Copyright Act in question,
Section 412(b):
“no award of statutory damages or
of attorney’s fees . . . shall be made
for . . . any infringement of copyright
commenced after first publication
of the work and before the effective
date of its registration, unless such
registration is made within three
months after the first publication of
the work.”
In other words, after you circulate
your software to the public, you can
receive statutory damages and
attorney’s fees in a case enforcing
your software copyright as long as
you registered your software with
the copyright office before the in-
fringement started. With one added,
short-term bonus: if you register
your software within 3 months af-
ter you first circulate it to the public,
then you can receive statutory dam-
ages and attorney’s fees for any
infringements within that same 3
month period, whether or not they
came before the registration.
Under the statute, for example, you
might wait 9 years after first publi-
cation of your software before you
bother to register. That registration
will give you the right to claim statu-
tory damages and attorney’s fees
for any infringements occurring af-
terwards, but not for any infringe-
ments that may have occurred in
the initial 9 year period before you
registered.
Compare this with the SPA quotes.
According to the SPA, if you don’t
register within 90 days after pub-
lishing the software, you have en-
tirely lost your ability to claim statu-
tory damages and attorneys fees
when you enforce your copyright. If
you wait 9 years to register, you
can’t claim such amounts for in-
fringements any time, either before
or after your registration.
So the SPA totally misread the stat-
ute. The only question is whether it
was through calculation or mental
dullness, both of which SPA has
exhibited in the past. Actually, there
is a third choice - sloppy statute
reading. But then you have to ask
why they would shock their mem-
bers with a headline about the dire
consequences of copyright non-reg-
istration without taking the time to
read the statute and figure out how
it really works.
Calculation is not out of the ques-
tion, though. The effect of the misin-
formation would be to scare soft-
ware owners into rushing to regis-
ter their copyrights. This is not a
bad thing, and it also serves the
SPA’s enforcement objectives. SPA
likes to threaten corporate infring-
ers of their members’ products with
copyright registrations in hand. But
why deceptively scare corporations
into registering with false informa-
tion, when the correct information,
properly presented, would have the
same effect? What is the relation-
ship between SPA and its members,
anyway?
This has been a public service an-
nouncement. Don’t take candy or
copyright law from the SPA.
52 Boardwatch - December 1992
MACINTOSH BBS
NEWS
by Bill Gram-Reefer
HI-BBS: GUI FOR MAC
AND WINDOWS
Alio? Qu’ est-ce que ce? Coming
from Montreal and its bilingual bent,
it’s no wonder that hi-BBS from
XBR Communications is first to in-
troduce a new generation of Macin-
tosh BBS software that supports
both Macintosh and PC-Windows
graphical-user-interfaci (GUI).
Based on client/server architecture,
hi-BBS allows multiple, simulta-
neous connections from the Macin-
tosh Communications Toolbox
(CTB). This real-time multi-task-
ing server manages all of its files
and folders based on a true Finder-
based Tree-Structure. Because cli-
ents connect to the server and com-
municate via the hi-BBS protocol,
the system allows for both Macs and
PC-Windows applications to act as
clients.
Controlled through Apple Events,
the server supports E-Mail, forums,
CD-ROM and live conference sec-
tions. hi-BBS supports multiple BBS
groups on the same server and pro-
vides user management adminis-
tration capabilities including pass-
words, access levels, and provides
tab-delimited connection statistics
that can be used with an integrated
utility to automatically invoice sub-
scribers.
The Mac User Interface is System 7
savvy and the Mac user version is
backward compatible with 6. OX sys-
tems, too. Windows provide the
metaphor for downloading files and
folders or reading and replying to
messages. The E-Mail window and
Forum windows both support send-
ing and receiving attachments to
base files. The Live Conference win-
dow allows for the session to be
saved to the server. According to the
company’s literature, hi-BBS’ PC-
Windows user interface runs on
Microsoft Windows allowing users
to connect via a modem to the server.
The graphical user interface is the
same as that of the Macintosh ver-
sion.
Macintosh system requirements to
run the hi-BBS server program are
fairly basic, Classic to Quadra, with
at least 2.5 MB RAM running Sys-
tem 7. The user versions for Mac
and PC support up to 9,600 bps
modems with V.42bis compression.
The PC user interface requires an
IBM or compatible PC (386 @ 33
Mhz recommended) with 1 MB RAM
and Windows 3.0 or higher.
XBR also provides a series of CTB-
compatible tools and custom-de-
signed, 2- or 4-port serial NuBus
cards to allow systems and users to
connect to X.25 or Switched-56 lines
with sessions established either by
calling or listening. Each X.25 con-
nection can support 100 users. hi-
BBS also supports other serial con-
nections and AppleTalk nets.
Mildly amused? It gets more inter-
esting. Through a service contract,
XBR can develop additional custom
applications for your BBS includ-
ing, but not limited to: custom
graphical interfaci, online ordering
and product catalog modules, full-
text document search and retrieval
with Boolean, proximity, wildcard
and loop searches; online SQL
server, and Quickmail, MS-Mail,
O.C.E. and X.400 gateways.
XBR also offers a HyperCard-based
BBS Toolkit that comes complete
with an easy-to-use command lan-
guage so you can even hack a knock-
off of Tradewars. Coming soon: a
completely modular server, system
and feature expansion through ex-
ternals, a BBS Apple Events suite,
and C++ libraries full of custom
functions.
XBR prices hi-BBS by the nuMBer
of phone lines supported rather than
the nuMBer of users. Let’s say it
backwards: free unlimited users;
you pay for the nuMBer of lines
connected to your Mac. There. Aren’t
you glad you didn’t just scan the
headline? Bien! XBR Communica-
tions, 5253 Decarie Boulevard, Suite
# 350, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
H3W-3C3; ( 514 ) 489-1001 voice;
( 514 ) 489-4966 fax; AppleLink:
XBR; ( 514 ) 489-0445 bbs.
BBS SOFTWARE FOR
GROWNUPS
Previewed at MacWorld Boston in
August, Lotus Notes for Macintosh
( LNM ) is Lotus Development Corp.’s
workgroup computing software for
the Mac. This new addition enables
Macintosh users to communicate,
share information, and develop
workgroup applications together
with Microsoft Windows and IBM
OS/2 users also running Lotus Notes
in a networked environment.
The Macintosh version of Notes op-
erates as a client front-end applica-
tion on the full range of Macintosh
computers, including the Apple
PowerBook, allowing organizations
to integrate their remote and net-
worked Macs into an enterprise-
wide get-it-done-and-let’s-party en-
vironment. As a fully-supported
Notes client, Notes for Macintosh
users can create, edit, sort and share
Boardwatch - December 1992 53
Remote
Imaging
Group
BBS On-Line Satellite Directory
(214) 394-7438 BBS (214) 492-7747 FAX flnt«rn^-kf5h^.ky»»tCT.oroldrigftw)
The DRIG BBS is the premier source of information on
satellite tracking, satellite imagery, telemetry analysis,
tracking programs, satellite databases, NASA, space
l communications, etc.
Over 0 GIGABYTES of files related
to satellites. Amateur Radio,
Digital Image Processing,
Digital Signal Processing,
Amateur Television AND MUCH MORE I
6 LINES AND B PC'S
NO WAITING!
USR Dual Standard 14400bps V.32bi» modems
ON-LINE VISA/MASTERCARD Registration
CD-ROMS with NASA VOYAGER IMAGES
ON-UNE HAMCALL Lookup Application
Thousands of Satellite Images of Earth
DAILY Download from Weather Satellites
Satellite Keplerian Elements Updated Daily
Internet Access with Hundreds of News Groups
Echo Mail wvith Conference Message Forwarding
Off-Line Rosemail readers for easy reading
Multiple Doors For Satellite Databases
YEARLY MEMBERSHIP WITH OR WITHOUT INTERNET
USE VISA OR MASTERCARD OR SEND CHECK FOR SUBSCRIPTION
RATES Cine, tax)
/ YEAR MEMBERSHIP - FULL DOWNLOADING - no ratios $32.50
1 YEAR MEMBERSHIP * FULL EXOWNLOADING - Internet Access $43.40
Dallas Remote Imaging Group BBS
P.O. Box 117088, Carrollton Texas 75011-7088
Notes documents like sales reports,
easily develop Notes applications
including customer tracking, or
online database modules; partici-
pate in structured conferences, and
access system-wide services such as
security and database access and
replication, either as a remote call-
in or networked or gateway user.
LNM supports Apple’s System 6.04
plus and System 7 and can connect
with LocalTalk, Ethernet or Token
Ring networks to Notes servers run-
ning IBM’s OS/2 personal comput-
ing operating system. Notes for the
Macintosh takes full advantage of
Apple Events, Balloon Help, 32-bit
addressing and virtual memory.
In essence, LNM is a user version of
a host program that let’s your Mac
play with all of the applications
native to the server, which isn’t a
Mac. But seriously, we’re not talk-
ing Flash Attack, here, the Notes
environment is an important ex-
ample of where BBSing is headed:
transparent, cross-platform connec-
tivity and interoperability. Sounds
like BBS software with a mission.
Too bad Jack’s Internet pals didn’t
think of this. But that’s supply-side,
trickle-down, voodoo economics for
you. Them’s that can pay get the
good stuff with the cool interface.
The rest of us have to FTP. Who sez
government workers are coddled?
To give you an idea where all of this
might be headed, Lotus claims over
120,000 Notes users in 400+ com-
panies, including some of the larg-
est; Andersen Consulting, for in-
stance, buys ‘em in lots of 20,000.
Lotus has already made steps to
more tightly integrate Notes into
the Novell Netware environment
including support for Novell’s Mes-
sage Handling Services (MHS).
Other strategic partnerships include
a licensing agreement with Verity,
Inc. to use that company’s full-text
retrieval technology. Additionally,
Lotus will incorporate technology
from Eastman Kodak (document
and image management), Calera
Recognition (optical character rec-
ognition) and GammaLink (fax ca-
pabilities). Of course the fun part is
integrating all of that to produce a
Notes-based incoming fax set up
that will transform and store the
fax image into fully searchable and
retrievable text.
I wonder if they plan on introducing
a Fidonet gateway? Lotus Develop-
ment Corporation, 55 CaMBridge
Parkway, CaMBridge, MA 02142;
(617)577-8500.
NEW MICROPHONE
SUPPORTS TCP/IP
O.K. So you bought a high-speed
modem. So, who you gonna call?
The Internet, of course! Well, now
that trendy chore will be even easier
with Software Venture’s new re-
lease of its flagship Microphone
product. In fact, faxing will be easier,
too, as the MicroPhone Pro pack-
age bundles its new MicroPhone
II 4.0.2 telecommunications soft-
ware with its MP Telnet Tool and
FAXSTF fax software from STF
Technologies.
MicroPhone II, is widely recognized
as a leading telecommunications
package for the Macintosh . So what’s
MicroPhone 4.0 got that 3.0 hasn’t
got? Plenty! 4.0 is System 7 savvy
with support for Apple Events and
Balloon Help. There are other perks.
The new version’s support of Pub-
lish and Subscribe, for instance,
provide the ability to download and
automatically route new informa-
tion to the right place in a spread-
sheet or word processing document.
Its support for the Connection Man-
ager of the Communications Toolbox
lets you connect to more networks
and services. And, in addition to
new support for VT220 and VT320
terminal emulation, MicroPhone II
4.0+ also knows HyperCard 2.0
XCMDs and XFCNs to expand
power and customization. With its
color icons, picture buttons, interac-
tive dialogs, floatingpalettes, popup
menus, powerful scriptinglanguage
and automatic script recording, you
get to make your very own, auto-
54 Boardwatch - December 1992
...does an admirable job of
answering questions on copy-
right issues, trademarks, what you
can put online and what you can’t,
... and what your legal liabilities are as
the result of your actions online based
on current interpretations of law, how
to handle e-mail privacy issues and
more, in a very practical sense.
SysLaw is must reading for every-
one who operates, or contemplates
operating a BBS.”
JACK RICKARD
EDITOR and PUBLISHER
BOARDWATCH MAGAZINE
Lance Rose and Jonathan Wallace, leading experts on electronic information systems and BBS law (with over 20 years
combined experience in their respective legal practices), bring you SysLaw: Second Edition — the most comprehensive
legal reference ever written for BBS sysops and callers. This 336-page book details the following topics:
■ Your Rights as a Sysop ■ The Caller Contract & Other Agreements ■ Crime and the BBS
■ Privacy ■ Injurious Materials & Activities on Your BBS ■ Searches & Seizures
■ Sexually Explicit Material ■ Who Owns the Information on Your BBS? ■ Dangerous Code
■ Plus 10 Appendices of relevant communications laws, a sample caller contract and information sources.
Available exdusively from the publisher:
PC Information Group, Inc. • 1-800-321-8285
1126 East Broadway, Winona. MN 55987
(507) 452-2824 • Fax: (507) 452-0037
matic, easy-to-use graphical front-
end to virtually any remote server.
And now you can point that gun at
the Internet.
The MP Telnet Tool is a TCP/IP
connection tool written for Apple’s
Communications Toolbox. It lets you
connect to any platform that sup-
ports TCP/IP including DEC, VMS,
SCO UNIX, NeXT, HP, IBM, and
others. The MP Telnet Tool lets you
log on to any telnet host that sup-
ports TTY, VT52, VT100, VT102,
VT220, VT320 terminal modes and
transfers files using most common
transfer protocols including
ZMODEM. This connectivity, plus
the interface tools, offers a big step
in helping users navigate and auto-
mate tasks in the TCP/IP environ-
ment such as mail, news, database
access and data retrieval.
Spokespeople for Software Ventures
claim that the introduction of the
Telnet Tool is but the first such in a
series of extension utilities that will
eventually include File Transfer
Protocol (FTP), Serial Line Internet
Protocol ( SLIP) and TCP mail reader
tools not only for the Mac but for the
company’s Windows version of
MicroPhone as well.
The Pro package includes FAXSTF,
the popular Mac software that lets
users create and send faxes from
within any standard Macintosh
application. You know how it works
by now, essentially you fax instead
of print. FAXSTF includes a Phone
Book and support for precision lay-
outs and Adobe Type Manager
which helps you create attractive
cover sheets.
Something for everybody: the Pro
package lists for $295; the
MicroPhone program itself now lists
for $195; the MP Telnet Tool, as
part of the MicroPhone TCP/IP Tool
Library which includes FAXSTF,
carries a suggested retail price of
$95. The entry-level version of
MicroPhone, v. 1.7 has been renamed
Personal MicroPhone and will re-
tail for $49.95. Software Ventures
Corporation, 2907 Claremont Av-
enue, Berkeley, C A 94705; ( 5 10 )644-
3232 voice; (510)848-0885 fax.
MULTITASKING TELECOM
SOFTWARE
Mercury Systems has released its
macINTERCOMM product, an in-
novative, telecommunications pro-
gram that actually lets you start a
file transfer and get back to work.
According to the company’s litera-
ture, with macINTERCOMM, you
can compress files, boot large appli-
cations, recalc a spreadsheet, play a
game, run gargantuan After Dark
files, do any processor-intensive task
that would normally abort your file
transfer yet suffer no interruption
or decrease in speed of the transfer.
Full protocol support includes all
forms of XMODEM, YMODEM,
YMODEM-g, and ZMODEM with
on the fly compression, and an ad-
vanced Kermit with extended pack-
ets up to 9K. Emulation support
from TTY up through VT220 are
included with full 16-color PC-ANSI.
Other features include: Auto Dial
with redial, a Smart Dial that auto-
matically adjusts your phone
nuMBers to your current area code,
built-in scripting with compiler,
script recording with macro editor,
20 MB save-til-next time scroll
buffer, and the ability to keep up
with fast text throughput and still
scroll around smoothly. Results of a
vendor-conducted test show fairly
impressive ZMODEM throughputs
up to 28% faster than MicroPhone
II and 34% faster than the White
Knight (all that armor we suppose ).
Multitasking telecommunications?
I don’t know if this is a good thing. I
normally take a break from my desk
when I start a download: stretch,
check the mail, spy on my neigh-
bors, not altogether time-killing
tasks, mind you, but things that
don’t need to be done at the desk.
Not that enamored of Spectre, or
Cribbage 2.5 (it cheats in the “count
my hand mode,” anyhow), I truly
welcome those breaks that get me
out of the chair. But here comes
Mercury Systems and their
Tayloresque time-clock attitudes
about work management and soft-
ware productivity. Plus it’s priced to
compete with MicroPhone. Tempt-
ing fate, that.
What I really want is to be able to
download and/or send multiple files
at the same time, like you can with
FirstClass 2.0, AND do something
else with the computer or rescan the
sports page for the eighth time. Make
a universal telcom package that can
do that with any server and you’re
talking the 38th level of Dungeon of
Doom.
$199 retail. Demoware available on
the Big Board. Mercury Systems,
Inc., 10000 Santa Monica Boule-
vard, Suite # 123, Los Angeles, CA
90067; ( 310 ) 553-0881 voice;
( 310 ) 553-1291 fax.
STOCKING STUFFERS
Depending on the size of your chim-
ney and wallet, here are some holi-
day gift ideas that every Mac sysop
will cherish
The newest editions of CD-ROMs
packed with softwar e from GigaRom
or BBS in a box ( vol.7) will be avail-
able soon. Quantum Leap Technolo-
gies publishers of GigaRom, will
also pi ess a custom CD-ROM for
$ 199 i'hese are Golden Master CDs,
640 MB, ISO 9660, Macintosh HFS,
and Mac/ISO Dual Format compat-
ible. Quantum Leap Technologies
(800)762-2877; BBS in a BOX, c/o
Arizona Macintosh Users’ Group;
(602)553-8966.
Books from Osborne/McGraw Hill:
“Dvorak’s Inside Track to the Mac”
(Includes One 3.5-inch diskette of
the author’s favorite Mac shareware
56 Boardwatch - December 1992
IT • • 1
Your Application Online in Days
Realize the benefits of online services, without allocation of dedicated resources,
major investment, or delay. Save time, money, and resources with The Business BBS!
A Classic Service Bureau An Applications Integrator
The Business BBS will set-up, operate, and
maintain your online service on our equipment,
at our facility.
We custom design menus, fax response,
databases, and other services to meet your specific
business needs. We'll even handle your custom
billing requirements. You control information
content, service features, and user access . . . with
complete security.
Ease of use is assured,
even for customers new to
online services. And, they
won't get busy signals!
Have The Business BBS create your cu^om
online applications. Eliminate the learning curve
and confusion of applications development.
Efficient, easy to use applications are built to
meet your business and customer needs.
The Business BBS gets your application built,
tested, and online in days. . .whether you plan to
operate it in-house or on our equipment.
The Business BBS
Voice Modem Fax
( 310 ) 477-0593 • ( 310 ) 477-0408 • ( 310 ) 477-9475
2531 Sawtelle Blvd., #109, Los Angeles, CA 90064-3163
J
( and scores). 729 pages. $39.95. And,
“The Mac Made Easy,” by Martin
Matthews. 328 pages. $19.95.
Apple Quadra 950. 68040 running
33 MHz, 8 MB RAM, expandable to
64 MB; ten built-in peripheral ports,
holds up to four storage devices, five
NuBus expansion slots for all of
those multi-line DMA cards from
Applied Engineering, 1 MB video
RAM to support all Apple monitors,
one processor-direct slot provides
direct access to the CPU, up to 32
bits per pixel for true color, etc., etc.
Don’t you wish?
MAC BBS OF THE MONTH
Could you imagine what it would be
like if everyone just tinkered with
their automobiles and never actu-
ally drove them anywhere except to
get to Grand Auto or (honk-honk)
AAMCO? Once in a while, some
people actually stop computing for
computing’s sake and use a com-
puter to actually reach some other
unrelated goal. For example, graphi-
cal-based BBS host systems run-
ning on the Macintosh happen to
provide an important benefit to busi-
ness use, primarily in the areas of
customer support and acting as ser-
vice bureaus. As a class, they are
easier to use and navigate, particu-
larly for beginners. Ease-of-use is
particularly noteworthy, especially
as a means of delivering extended
or value-added services to custom-
ers, which is, once you think about
it, what every successful BBSs does.
CCS is a BBS operated by the Cam-
pus Computer Store affiliated with
the University of Chicago in Chi-
town. Running TeleFinder, CCS is
a free service maintained by the
technical staff of the store. It pro-
vides technical support to custom-
ers who buy computer equipment
from the store. CCS also provides
current pricing on a variety of prod-
ucts it carries in addition to soft-
ware upgrades for many applica-
tions.
Eric Hoffman, chief sysop of CCS,
runs the board from the basement
of the store on an SE/30 with a 40
MB internal and 170 MB external
hard drive. Currently operating two
lines, CCS is equipped with a couple
of U.S. Robotics V.32bis Courier
modems. By the time you read this
you might find more lines, a IIFX
humming along and a possible
Fidonet node. In addition to store
related information and help, Eric
uses CCS as an outlet for his own
passion: collecting and disseminat-
ing information on the Internet; the
board carries a variety of files and
use to support the store, Eric finds
that the BBS really helps move in-
formation and sales along. “We’re
close to Fermi and other Labs,”
Hoffmann noted. “Those customers
always have an interest in current
pricing. So, instead of writing
someone’s name down, entering the
information into a database, print-
ing a flyer and mailing it out much
later to prospective buyers, they
can just download the most current
listing right away,” he explained.
In addition to the folders containing
pricing, news and some messaging
Boardwatch - December 1992 57
ate publisher of Western
MicroMarket, Bill has been writing
about Macintosh computers since
1984.- Ed.]
A graphical interface for your
existing BBS software, NOW!
With R I Paint™ and RIPterm™, you can add a mouse driven, graphical user interface
to nearly any text-based BBS, IBM or Mac. Call now and download a demo version!
Fast transmission times
An easy to use graphical editor
PD graphics terminal included
Works on virtually any text-based BBS!
Multiple, scalable colored fonts
Hyper-text like Help
Non-proprietary protocol
Built-in Icon editor
4GL GUI painting system
Macintosh Solutions
NovaLink Professional™ also
available, a complete graphic
BBS for Macintosh!
14,400bd NovaCentral: (714) 840-8641
2400baud ArenaBBS: (714) 840-3520
Voice: (714)840-6082
rsoftwJjni Fax: (714)840-0488
- We also offer NovaLink and The MajorBBS custom configuration services -
(not much), the CCS set up has
TeleFinder put “help” and “com-
monly asked questions” folders at
the main screen level so beginners
can get their hands held as soon as
they log on. Upgrades are made
available to authorized users
through TeleFinder’s ability to cus-
tomize access to paths and privi-
leges.
OperatingsinceJune, 1992, the BBS
offers pricing on and support for
Apple, IBM, Dell and NeXT prod-
ucts. CCS users are split fairly
evenly between DOS and Mac us-
ers. Eric welcomes callers from out-
side the university community, es-
pecially those with an interest in
the Internet files. Of course, if you
want to check out current pricing on
the new PowerBooks and just hap-
pen to have your credit card handy.
. . well, who knows what could hap-
pen. CCS, 6019 S. KiMBark, Chi-
cago, IL60637; (312)702-7500 voice;
( 3 1 2 ) 702-2 1 46 bbs w/8N 1 & V. 42bi s
( no MNP-5 ). Log on as “Guest” with
the password as “Guest.”
ATTENTION MAC SYSOPS
If you have a Macintosh-based BBS
let us know who you are and what
you think you’re doing that makes
your board special. To make things
easy for everyone, mail a diskette
containing your user program with
a preset account, time allotment ( 1-
hr for editorial deadbeats like me
should be plenty) and password to
the address below so I can log on and
take a look around your system.
Also include a text-file that describes
your board and any interesting
places on it you think are special. I’ll
try to visit as many boards as pos-
sible and write about the most in-
teresting ones I can find. MAC BBS,
2069 Highland Drive, Concord, CA
94520.
[Bill Gram-Reefer , based in Con-
cord, California , is a publicist work-
ing with Comstock Communica-
tions. He operates WORLDVIEW
BBS (510)676-2919 running on a
Macintosh computer. As the former
editor of SHOWPAGE and associ-
INTERNETNEWS
INTERNET STATISTICS
Everyone loves statistics about the
online world. And in the case of the
Internet, it is a most fortunate thing
since everyone quotes plenty of them
in an awesome variety of different
numbers. This is not as suspect as it
appears. What numbers you come
up with i s defined by what you count
as part of the Internet.
The NSFNet backbone is widely
considered the heart of the network.
The various numbers you encoun-
ter will include networks directly
connected to this, plus any number
of other things more or less con-
nected to it. It is in this more or less
area where things appear to break
down and some of the more wildly
optimistic numbers start to find
earth to grow in.
Merit is a Michigan educational
entity that administers the National
Science Foundation contract to pro-
vide backbone services. They main-
tain some fascinating statistics on a
machine at NIS.NSF.NET. You can
access these statistical files by file
transfer protocol with the command
ftp nis.nsf.net. The actual files are
found in /nsfnet/statistics.
According to the month by month
records, As of September 30, 1992,
there were some 6,640 networks
connected to the NSFNet backbone.
The United States accounted for
some 4404 of these but 2236 net-
works were located in some 43 for-
eign countries. Thailand, Ecuador,
and Estonia were the latest entries
in July, 1992. As of September
1991, there were some 3389 net-
works including 1128 foreign nets.
58 Boardwatch - December 1992
The number of networks effectively
doubled in the course of the year -
U.S. growth at 94.78% and foreign
growth slightly higher at 107.09%.
This same growth can be noted by
the aggregate traffic carried on the
network itself In August 1991 for
example, some 1484 billion bytes
traversed the combined T1 and T3
infrastructure of the NSFNet. In
August of 1992, this figure had
again more than doubled to 3200
billion bytes - a 115.63% increase
indicating that USE of the Internet
is growing faster than additional
network connections by about 15%.
But this byte traffic number is likely
the tip of the iceburg. These byte
traffic figures count ONLY the traf-
fic crossing from one regional net-
work to another via the NSFNet
backbone. They don’t at all address
traffic WITHIN a regional area’s
local subnets.
MINDVOX- NEW YORK
INTERNET SERVICE
An increasingly popular niche online
revolves around smallish UNIX sys-
tems offering dialup access out one
door and Internet access out the
other. These aren’t the regional net-
works setup to offer host access to
the NSFNet backbone, but another
layer connected to those regionals.
Operating as small commercial ser-
vices, they offer an inexpensive
bridge between the Internet world
and the somewhat more accessible
dialup district anyone can access
with a modem. There are an in-
creasing number of them, and they
are a bit unusual.
We recently stumbled across one of
these in New York titled MindVox
that has some interesting charac-
teristics.
Technically, the system runs on a
NeXT Turbo with 64 MB of RAM
tied via LAN to some 3.2 GB of
storage. If that weren’t unusual
enough, it uses a program titled
VOICES 2.0 that is essentially Tho-
mas Dell’s Waffle II running on
NeXTSTEP. Like most UNIX sys-
tems, the result is a little clunky,
but actually pretty easy to use.
The system offers 24 dialup lines in
New York at (212)988-5030. It also
has an IP connection to the Internet
and you can telnet to the system
with telnet phantom.com. The
actual IPaddress is 38.145.218.228.
For dialup callers, the system is a
pretty good value at $10 per month.
Callers have an Internet mail box,
access to about 1600 Usenet News
Groups, a connection to the Inter-
active Real-time Chat (IRC) func-
tion that can have up to 500 users
engaged in a massive global chat.
Those who want to telnet into the
system can do so for $10 per month
as well, although the system doesn’t
give them access to Usenet
Newsgroups and some other func-
tions they already have access to
anyway.
/ 4,400 bps Data/Fax Modems
• 14,400 bps V.32bis data/Group 3 send and receive fax
• 57,600 bps data throughput
• CCITT V.42bis and MNP 5 data compression
• Internal half-card with 16550 UART
• Fax directly from any application
• EIA-578 Class 1 fax compatibility
• 5-year warranty
• Fax and data communication software included
Internal Spirit II Modem
External Spirit II also available
SysOp P ro gram Availab le
Dealer Inquiries Welcome • University and Government P.O.'s Accepted
For Information Call:
1 - 800 - 551-6166
Fax: (408) 956-1345
All product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.
QuickCommeo.
Affordable High-Speed Modems
2290 Ringivood Ave, Suite K
San )ose f C A 95131
Boardwatch - December 1992 59
i
MICROLINK B
The Only BBS You’ll Ever Need
(303) 972-9600
WHAT IS MICROLINK B?
Operating since 1984, Microlink B is now
the largest electronic Bulletin Board System
(BBS) in the Rocky Mountain region.
Microlink B provides the serious BBS
consumer with quality public domain and
shareware software, as well as interesting and
informative message conferences covering a
variety of topics.
SOFTWARE!
Your membership to Microlink B gives you
immediate access to one of the finest and most
comprehensive software collections you’ll find
anywhere. Our collection is conveniently
categorized and logically packaged for efficient
downloading directly to your computer.
We DO NOT offer software for non-IBM
compatible computers. Why? We think it’s
better to concentrate all our efforts into
providing our members with the absolute best
PC-based software collection possible.
We constantly work to make our software
collection better by adding new files and
updating existing software with newer versions.
With over 2,500 megabytes of on-line file
storage capacity, you’ll find DOS and system
utilities, file/drive maintenance utilities, word
processing software, personal and business
finance software, programmer’s tools and
source code, educational software, games,
digitized pictures and graphics, and a whole lot
more. With well over 150,000 individual files to
choose from, chances are you’ll find the
software your looking for!
TEST DRIVE MICROLINK B TODAY!
You can take a tour on Microlink B anytime.
Set your communications software for 8 data
bits, no parity and one stop bit. Dial Microlink
B at (303) 972-9600. Microlink B will ask for
your full name and will ask you to choose a
password for future access. You’ll then be
guided along the way with easy-to-follow
menus. You’ll be able to look over our software
collection and read conference messages.
BECOME A MICROLINK B MEMBER!
Microlink B is a user-supported subscription
BBS service. Members enjoy up to 180 minutes
of system access per day. There are NO
download limits, and NO upload/download
ratios are enforced. Unlike many other BBS
services you’ll encounter, Microlink B
welcomes file downloaders.
With a number of membership plans to
choose from, we’re confident one will meet
your on-line needs. Membership plans include:
$15 — Two Month Access Trial Membership
$30 — Six Month Access Membership
$50 — One Year Access Membership
$99 — Lifetime Access Membership
Subscribe on-line with your Visa or
MasterCard credit card. Or download our
mail-in registration form for check/money
order/credit card subscriptions. For more
information, write to:
Microlink B
Post Office Box 620247
Littleton, Colorado 80162
Prices and specifications are subject to change
without notice.
60 Boardwatch - December 1992
Free! CD-ROM Disc
We want to Show Off our CD-ROM Interface Software,
& we're willing to give you a Free CD-ROM Disc to do it.
MegaDemol contains 350 Megs of Shareware and PD software. Including Special CD-ROM Benchmark and Test Utilities
written by our programming staff, and NOT available on any other CD-ROM discs. Our Special Test Utilities measure
throughput as well as access times in a reliable and consistent manner for a meaningful real-world benchmark for
CD drives. The CD disc and Interface Software are fully functional (even for BBS use) and not crippled in any way.
So what's different about Profit Press's CD-ROM Discs ...
Besides FREE Interface Software that'll Blow Your Socks Off?
All of the archive files have been read and indexed by
our hypertext search engine which creates a file on the
CD-ROM Disc that allows for searches on unique
words and phrases. This means that you and (if you
have a BBS) your remote user can search the entire disc
in less than 1 0 seconds and the search will include ALL
of the documentation INSIDEthearchive files. For DOS
and Windows 3.1 users we provide MegaSearch and
MegaWin our Graphical Search and Retrieval Software
that allows the user to view 256 Color Gif's, Animated
Color Fli's, play SOUND BLASTER sound Files, plus view
and search for text strings INSIDE the archive files, all
with just one keystroke or mouse click.
MegaDoor Features Include: Quick & easy Installation
Directly supports upload/download ratios for Wildcat!
3. 0/3.5, Remote Access 1.11, QuickBBS 2.75,
SuperBBS 1.17, Maximus 2.0, and GAP, Batch
downloads with Ymodem, Zmodem and Kermit,
Single downloads with Xmodem, Ymodem, Zmodem
and Kermit, ZIP View, Read, & Search, Sysop definable
menus, security levels, upload/download ratios
Network/DesqView support (1 27 nodes). Description
Search/File find. Hyper Search, Support for
non-standard and locked COM ports.
All of our CD-ROM Discs are BBS Ready with
MegaDoor and MegaTerm. Both fully support the
hypersearch lookup features with .ZIP View, Read, and
Search for text strings INSIDE the archive files.
MegaTerm is our Remote BBS Graphical User Interface
for MegaDoor that allows the remote user to access
MegaDoor using. ..Mouseable Pull-Down Menus in a
Windowed Environment!
-ROM
PC Shareware Spectacular
650 Megs 8,036 Files
1 + Gigs Uncompressed
Sound files, GIF's, FU's,
Utilities, Programming,
Bibles, TrueType Fonts,
WINDOWS Programs,
Electronic Magazines
Communications, BBS,
Plus Much More!
Pressed 1/92
PC Shareware & PD
Try MegaTerm! It's unlike anything seen before on
public BBS systems. MegaTerm makes on-line
communications exciting again! You Have to See it to
Believe it. Call the Profit Press BBS @ (602) 299-0693 or
The FAO BBS @ (602) 577-6969 Select Doors from the
main menu, run door #1, enter ! to download
MegaTerminal, unZip, read the short document
megaterm.doc, install as instructed and
MegaTerm!
experience
4K,
SPECIAL
OFFER!
To order Demo ail
we ask is thatyou cover our
normal shipping & handling
costs, & we'll refund it with your
next CD disc order, or order
one of our CD discs Now and we'll
include itwithyourorder. If you
mail usyour order include
S6.00 (Shipping within the US)
To use your Visa or MasterCard iust
give us a call, or Fax usyouroraer.
dhefao,
cd-rom discs
For Adults Only
"Wife Proof Labels"
256 color SVGA GIF's,
FU's, GL's, Games, Text,
& Animation. 3 Disc Set
1,637 Megabytes
Over 1 3,848 Files!
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But in addition to an unusual cus-
tom software setup on a NeXT ma-
chine and Internet access, MindVox
has a very different fl a vor from those
you may often encounter. The sys-
tem is actually the brainchild of
Patrick Kroupa (Lord Digital) and
Bruce Fancher( Lord Dead). Kroupa
has written a long, rambling essay
espousing his early years as a
“hacker”, a hiatus from CyberSpace,
and his recent rediscovery of the
online mystique. While the 60KB
editorial sports some valiant efforts
toward self aggrandizement and
some overdone shots at the “subur-
bia/tract housing” of today’s com-
mon PCBoard-style electronic bul-
letin boards, if you discount the
“onliner than thou” elements, it’s
actually a pretty interesting descrip-
tion of the growth and transition of
teenage hackers into adult online
enthusiasts. Actually, it was a bit
enchanting.
And the catharsis may be represen-
tative of a larger picture. Recall that
Len Rose, a prominent figure in
the Operation Sun Devil drama,
was arrested for breaking into a
Bell South computer and fetching a
copy of a 91 1 service administrative
document that the telephone com-
pany claimed was valued at some
$79,000. Rose plead guilty to the
charge. Craig Neidorf, a college stu-
dent in Missouri who published an
electronic newsletter titled Phrack,
was also charged with a variety of
things based on the theft, transpor-
tation across state lines, and publi-
cation of the document. A trial en-
sued in St. Louis and as it turns out,
the document was publicly avail-
able from the telephone company at
about $ 13 . 50 . The charges against
Neidorf were dropped. But since
Rose had already plead guilty, his
sentencing, despite the fact that it
occured after the Neidorf trial and
after what actually amount to fraud
and manipulation of the justice sys-
tem by the telephone company had
been revealed, somehow Rose got
14 months in prison anyway. I’ve
never been very comfortable with
this turn of events, and Rose likely
less so. Subsequently, we read regu-
lar accounts from Rose of life behind
bars in Jim Thomas’s electronic
publication Computer Under-
ground Digest. He apparently
found the stay in jail a very focusing
and clarifying experience.
Rose was released a few months
ago, and apparently Kroupa has
hired Rose as the system adminis-
trator and chief of security on the
MindVox system. And Neidorf and
Jim Thomas are on the system regu-
larly along with a host of luminaries
from the network and the hacker
underground. Bruce Sterling, au-
thor of THE HACKER CRACK
DOWN has been on a few times and
the system seems to be forming up
as a hangout for a whole bevy of
maturing hacker underground
types. This makes for a rather inter-
esting community of users.
The system exhibits a kind of an
adolescent humor that hits some-
times and misses about as often -
alternating between grandiose and
often lengthy poetic descriptions of
a grander cyberspace, and arcane
inside jokes. They claim to be newer,
flashier, and more satisfying than
gummy bears and longer lasting
than most hair styling products for
example.
In any event, the system is differ-
ent, clearly experimental, and work-
ing in this new Internet host bridge
niche that’s struggling to find legs.
This one’s certainly worth a look.
Phantom Access Technologies, Inc.,
1562 First Avenue, Suite 351, New
York, NY 10028; ( 212 ) 988-5987
voice; ( 212 ) 988-5030 data; Internet:
info@phantom.com.
ECONET: THE ECOLOGY
NETWORK
by J. Scott Christianson and Dan
Wendling
No longer an alternative or radical
viewpoint, environmentalism is be-
ginning to change our lives and our
world view. The online world is also
62 Boardwatch * December 1992
changing because of concern for our
common habitat. Many BBS now
carry environmental conferences
and echoes. And some BBS are de-
voted solely to environmental top-
ics (Boardwatch, November 1991).
Online environmental communities
are found on services such as
CompuServe (Outdoors Forum,
Good Earth F orum ), America Online
(Environment Club, National Geo-
graphic Online), and the WELL
(Environment). This article explores
EcoNet, a service devoted solely to
environmental conferences and top-
ics.
EcoNet is a fairly large system. The
software and hardware have
changed several times since EcoNet
was first started in 1984 on four
Apple computers. EcoNet now oper-
ates on a Sun SPARC station II with
64 megabytes of memory and 3.5
gigabytes of hard disk storage.
EcoNet is just one of many net-
works administered by the Insti-
tute for Global Communications
(IGC), a non-profit corporation that
develops low-cost access to computer
networking for activists outside the
United States, especially in non-
industrialized and Southern Hemi-
sphere countries.
ECONET USERS
Currently EcoNet has over 3,500
subscribers and is growing by about
200 users per month. A recent ar-
ticle in World Watch magazine com-
mented on EcoNet’s size: “Given the
size of the United States, this may
appear to be a fairly small group,
but it is one with considerable lever-
age. More than 60 percent of
EcoNet’s members are organiza-
tions or individuals representing
organizations. Indeed, EcoNet’s
online phone directory, which gives
the names and addresses of all of its
users, reads like an bibliography of
the American environmental move-
ment.”
Some, like Lester Brown of the World
Watch Institute, are well-known
environmental researchers working
to create a sustainable society. Oth-
ers, like members of Earth First!,
are known for their preservationist
attitudes and for the militant tac-
tics they often employ.
The common denominator of this
diverse online community is these
environmental activists have real-
ized that if they want to be as suc-
cessful as the industries and Politi-
cal Action Committees (PACs) they
lobby against, they need to be more
sophisticated in networking and
organizing people for their cause.
Many organizations have estab-
lished private conferences on
EcoNet. These conferences are avail-
able only to the members or officers
of that particular group. For ex-
ample, the EcoNet newsletter re-
ports: “The Green Party of Califor-
nia has been coordinating some of
its organizing efforts online. GPOC
uses private electronic conferences
to iron out some of its internal dis-
agreements rather than devote lim-
ited and infrequent face to face
meeting time to this necessary but
not so pleasant part of developing a
party. The low cost of a statewide
meeting taking place online doesn’t
come close to what they’d have to
pay for long-distance telephone rates
or even a general mailing.”
COST
Besides an initial fee of $15, a sub-
scription to EcoNet costs $10 per
month, which includes one hour of
off-peak time. Connect charges are
$5 off-peak and $10 per hour peak
(7am-6pm). EcoNet can also be ac-
cessed through the Internet ( telnet
igc.org or 192.82.108.1) at an
hourly rate of $3. Users can call
EcoNet by modem directly in Menlo
Park, California at (415)322-0884
(8N1).
FEATURES
The EcoNet interface is very basic
and offers 3 main functions: Mail,
Conference and Database. Although
Centrally Located on Planet Earth
Online since 1 982, Nautilus Commercial Data now offers 250,000
public domain files and 200 incoming lines. We support 38,400
baud throughput, with 1 4,400 baud CCITT V.42bis compatibility.
Our corporate fileserver supports 28 Gigabytes of on-line storage,
complete with HOURLY U.S. and WORLD News updates, and
multiple daily Satellite Weather Images of Earth. (No charge to
examine system!) With THOUSANDS of GIF images, dBASE
files, 1-2-3 Templates, Word Processors, Cl ip Art, Telecom pack-
ages, and GAMES, were your 1-Stop Get-lt-AII-Here system
- VIS A/MC/OPT1M A/AMEX Accepted -
UE
Data: (316) 365-7631
JOI
(8.N.1 - IBM/ANSI/Color Supported)
Nautilus Commercial Data System
P.O. Box #645 / tola, KS 66749
Voice Mail/FAX: (316) 365-7559
Boardwatch - December 1992 63
the capability exists, EcoNet doesn’t
offer any graphic menus, and all the
command prompts are on a single
line. The user manual explains: “If
IGC adopted a multi -line or graphic
menu of commands for all users, the
U.S. subscribers would only see a
tiny increase in cost. For overseas
users, the cost could increase enor-
mously, since they pay according to
the number of lines of text sent via
a Packet Switching System.”
EcoNet is well connected to other
networks. In addition to the mail
linkages that result from connec-
tions to Internet* including connec-
tions to Fido, CompuServe, America
Online*, M( Jl Mail, the WELL, etc.),
EcoNet users can send mail to
GlasNet (a computer network in
the Commonwealth of Independent
States, formerly the Soviet Union),
Padisnet (the Pan African Docu-
mentation Centre Network) and
several other networks.
A new feature of EcoNet allows us-
ers to send faxes and telexes while
online. Using this feature, an EcoNet
user can read a bulletin about the
newest clean water legislation, type
a letter to his/her Senator or Repre-
sentative while online and then
immediately fax it to Congress. A
typed letter can be in a
congressperson’s office fifteen min-
utes after a constituent reads a leg-
islative bulletin!
An EcoNet user from Venezuela
explains how he uses EcoNet’s telex
abilities: ‘Telex service here requires
a three minute minimum for send-
ing to Cuba and Uruguay. To make
matters worse, it sometimes takes
more than a week to get a telex
connection to Cuba from Caracas.
Now I send short one minute tel-
exes (through EcoNet’s telex ser-
vice). It is a paradox to go through a
US service to get better connections
to Cuba!”
EcoNet’s growing list of online data-
bases includes: UN NPPA, a United
Nations list of National Parks and
Protected Areas; Harbinger File, a
directory of citizen groups, govern-
ment agencies and environmental
education programs concerned with
California environmental issues;
DEER, the Directory of Environ-
mental Education Resources; RG-
Energy, energy cost analysis sys-
tem sponsored by Real Goods;
Events, a searchable calendar of
events posted by IGC users; and
EPA, bibliographic citations com-
piled by the US Environmental Pro-
tection Agency library network. All
of these databases are accessible
without additional charges.
EcoNet’s power lies in its confer-
ences. Over 500 EcoNet conferences
are available, as well as over 300
related conferences from other net-
works, including UseNet and other
IGC networks (PeaceNet,
HomeoNet and ConflictNet).
EcoNet users can create a “visit list”
of their favorite conferences. This
handy feature allows people to type
in a list of the conferences they are
interested in only once, instead of
each time they logon. After setting
up this list, users can select “v” and
the computer will transfer them to
the first conference in their visit
list. When they want to move on,
selecting “v” again will move them
to the next conference in the list
until all the conferences on the list
have been visited.
EcoNet’s online conferences have
become an extremely valuable tool
for environmentalists. For instance,
EcoNet was used to coordinate and
plan the United Nations Confer-
ence on Environment and Develop-
ment (UNCED) that was held last
June. Jean-Claude Faby, director
of the New York UNCED office, told
reporters before the meeting that
the best way to stay informed about
UNCED was to “Use EcoNet.”
Held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil,
UNCED was the largest United
Nations conference in history.
EcoNet has over 30 conferences per-
taining to UNCED. Most of these
were used by Non-Governmental
Organizations (NGO ) to prepare for
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UNCED. Most ofthe official UNCED
documents are available from
EcoNet in several different lan-
guages (English, Spanish, French
and Portuguese)
One of the most impressive UNCED
documents posted on EcoNet is the
Rio Declaration. This declaration is
a set of goals and objectives for
building a sustainable society; a
sustainable society is able to sup-
port its people without sacrificing
the resources that future genera-
tions will need to live healthy lives.
This idea is expressed in the famil-
iar saying, “We do not inherit the
land from our parents, we borrow it
from our children.” The Rio Decla-
ration recognizes that all humans
are “entitled to a healthy and pro-
ductive life” and that countries have
a “right to develop.” ( Unfortunately,
it will of course take much more
than a well-worded declaration for
our global society to become sus-
tainable.)
EcoNet is the home to many online
environmental newsletters includ-
ing The Energy and Climate In-
formation Exchange (ECIX)
newsletter; Develop Net News -
Online News and Views on Tech-
nology Transfer in International
Development ; and TIEMPO - a
Bulletin on Global Warming and
the Third World.
EcoNet has been experimenting
with publishing daily newsletters
from international conferences.
EcoNet volunteers or staff attend-
ing a conference write a short news-
letter after each days meetings. This
newsletter is immediately transmit-
ted to EcoNet and other networks.
People on the network get blow-by-
blow reports from meetings that
aren’t in the news everyday. An
important advantage of this type of
meeting coverage is that people who
read the daily newsletters and de-
cide that their viewpoints are not
being represented by their country’s
emissary can fax or telex a message
to him or her, before the next day’s
set of meetings. Last year, this tech-
nique was implemented during the
third meeting of the
Intergovernmental Negotiating
Committee for a Framework Con-
vention of Climate Change in
Geneva, Switzerland.
GLOBAL LINK OFFLINE MAIL
Global Link is an offline mail reader
for EcoNet written by David
Mansey-Kano (EcoNet id: dkano).
Global Link is more than just an
offline mail reader - it is also a text
editor and a communications pro-
gram. A nice feature of this pro-
gram is that conference and mail
indices are maintained on your com-
puter, so files can be selected for
downloading prior to connecting to
EcoNet. And, as with any offline
mail-reader, it’s not only easier to
use, but can also save you money in
connect charges. Global Link is
available for the shareware fee of
$50 and runs on IBM compatible
computers.
FTP
EcoNet offers free access to selected
files via ftp (file transfer protocol ) to
anyone with Internet access ( anony-
mous ftp to igc.org). These files
include several newsletters and the
UNCED documents (in the pub/
UNCED directory). For informa-
tion on EcoNet contact: EcoNet, In-
stitute for Global Communications,
18 De Boom Street, San Francisco
CA 94107; ( 415 ) 546-1794 fax;
( 415 ) 322-0884 data. There is also
an excellent book on this topic:
EcoLinking: Everyone ’s Guide to
Online Environmental Informa-
tion written by Don Rittner.
I J. Scott Christianson is a Research
Specialist at the Mason Institute of
Ophthalmology in Columbia, Mis-
souri, and writes an environmental
column for the local newspaper. Dan
Wendling lives in the Washington ,
DC, area and is the SysOp of the
Coin of the Realm BBS at
(301)585-6697. The two have col-
laborated on a downloadable docu-
ment titled Guide to Online Re-
sources for the Conservationist.
— Editor]
Boardwatch * December 1992 65
The Optical BBS
the Digital Publishing Company
8100 Wayzata Boulevard
Golden Valley, MN 55426 U.S. A.
612-595-0801
612-595-0802 FAX/BBS
In the USA Call ;
1 » 800 « 2 ? 9*6099
DIRECT DIAL
THE OZONE HOLE
Mike Mathews operates a system in
New Orleans that proves you don’t
have to be big to be good. The two-
line THE OZONE HOLE operates
at (504)891-3142 using PCBoard
14.5a software. The system does
sort 2 GB of files spread over 156
file areas and is graphically pretty
well laid out.
The Ozone Hole is working at mak-
ing the grade with connections to a
number of items. They offer USA
TODAY online, and sport an
Internet connection through a ma-
chine at Tulane University -
rex.cs.tulane.edu. Callers to The
Ozone Hole can send and receive
mail from their address at
ozonehole.new-orleans.la.us and
also participate in some 190 Usenet
news groups earned on the system.
It was here in the hole where we
first encountered Rush Limbaugh
news groups alt.rush-limb and
fan.rush-limb. Limbaugh has en-
joyed some popularity as a wildly
conservative radio talk show host
and now has his own 30 minute TV
show each weeknight.
The main theme of The Ozone Hole
seems to be sports. The system car-
ries local message conferences for
baseball, basketball, football, rac-
quetball, running, and skydiving,
and sports a door program titled
Crunch League Football that is ba-
sically a fantasy football program.
The system requires a $30 annual
membership fee and allows online
signups viaMC or Visa. If you want
to see what one looks like before it
grows up, this may be a comer.
CONNECTING TO
FIDONET -AN ODYSSEY
Operating a BBS may look like the
thundering Wizard of Oz to callers,
but most operators feel more like
the old man behind the curtain
cranking the wheels. While every-
one online is busy waving their arms
and yakking about how great it is,
the learning curve for non-techni-
cal BBS operators can be enor-
mously frustrating. The software
tools to do it are not as mature as
some other software niches, and
things can get a bit complicated.
Rudolph Rothemund is a 37 year-
old Star Trek fan and has operated
a Wildcat! BBS in Wooster Ohio
since May, 1989. There are several
levels of Star Trek Fandom. Most of
us in the latter days of our third
decade have watched one or both of
the “generations” of Star Trek more
or less loyally. But some of the fans
really get into it. Rudolph may not
be fully crazed yet, but he DOES
belong to a “ship” (a local fan club
called Star Ship Columbia) that is
part of a national “fleet”, has a “cap-
tain”, and his wife is sewing him
some Star Trek clothes so he’ll have
a “uniform”. Let’s just say he LIKES
it a LOT.
After running a BBS for three years,
he learned there was now a global
network linking BBS in dozens of
countries specifically to carry mes-
sage conferences on the topic of Star
Trek. This network used FidoNet
mailers to pass the conferences, so
Rudy decided to join FidoNet first,
and then join the Trek Net.
He soon found what all prospective
fidonet members learn - joining the
net is a bit beyond typing INSTALL
FIDONET at the keyboard. In truth,
to join this network, you have to
hunt down an amazing list of little
utility programs, and set up dozens
of configuration files - all so they
work together. As soon as you get it
to work, it takes off working auto-
matically and in a couple of weeks
you forget the pain.
But Rudy became obsessed with it.
It took him nearly a month, he esti-
mates nearly 170 hours of labor,
and over $300 in long distance tele-
phone charges. But he did get it
66 Boardwatch - December 1992
done, and he decided others
shouldn’t have to go through this.
So he wrote a 40 page document
specifically on how he connected his
Wildcat! system to the Fidonet and
he put the entire collection of neces-
sary files up on his Red Phoenix
BBS. This file is excruciatingly de-
tailed - listing directory structures,
configuration files, event files, and
the list of files you must have on
your treasure hunt to get a system
running. The effect is powerful. If
you run a Wildcat! system and want
to carry FidoNet echoes, Rothemund
has the information all in one place
complete with contact names, ad-
dresses, and telephone numbers.
It’s very specific, right down to U.S.
Robotics HST NVRAM settings. The
file is available on the system as
fidocatI.txt
And the process has a happy end-
ing. Rudy now carries 15 different
conferences on Star Trek detritus
from FidoNet and the Trek net -
nearly half the number of message
conferences on his single line board.
Rudolph Rothemund, The Red Phoe-
nix BBS 1:226/1260; PO Box 8102,
Wooster, OH 44691; (216)345-5807
BBS.
200,000 BOOK TITLES
ONLINE
There exists within our culture a
declining subset of the population
that actively and avidly enjoy read-
ing books. I suppose I’m one of them.
An easy and undisceming mark for
the publishing industry, I’m prob-
ably the only one in the world who
has actually read the user manual
thatcomings with a Waring blender.
Charles Stack of Parallax
Microsystems Inc. of Cleveland,
Ohio is likewise a book lover.
Stack actually has operated a soft-
ware company for the past eight
years to develop software for law
offices. But in March of this year he
opened a BBS catering specifically
to books and readers. He calls it
Book Stacks Unlimited and you
can reach it at (216)694-5732.
At its core, this 12-line TBBS sys-
tem is a database of books you can
dial up, search for books by author,
title, or subject, and order the book
with a credit card. A week later it
shows up on your doorstep. The key
to doing such a thing is selection.
Book Stacks sports approximately
200,000 titles in their database and
we had no difficulty racking up an-
other entry on the Master Card in a
vote of confidence that a few more
books piled up around the office on
the mounds of others wouldn’t de-
stroy the militantly neat, tidy, al-
most obsessively orderly decor of
our office.
But beyond online order entry from
a usefully large collection of titles
(we didn’t search for anything we
didn’t find), this plainly presented
online service is working toward
building a home for book lovers. It
features several discussion areas
revolving around the subject ofbooks
where callers can discuss the latest
titles and add their two-bits to the
reviews. We found over twenty is-
sues of a fascinating electronic news-
letter titled Reading For Plea -
sure Magazine . Edited by Cindy
and Drew Bartorilla, this online pub-
lication reviews dozens ofbooks you
may have missed.
The board does have a file area but
not particularly for shareware. We
found a file titled BOOKS_BD.ZIP
that lists HUNDREDS ofbooks on
the topic of BIRDS. The
BOOKS_CA.ZIP file lists 170 dif-
ferent books solely on the topic of
Canoeing. BYCYCLES.ZIP lists 80
different books on cycling.
BOOKS_TK.ZIP lists a total of 140
different books solely devoted to
STAR TREK. CHESS.ZIP listed
130 books on the game of chess. And
so on.
Ordering books is relatively simple
and straightforward. You can mark
books for later ordering while you
browse the database. You enter a
shipping address and your credit
card number to actually order. With
your first order you get a free book
titled the Book Buyer’s Advisor
great
software
lets you get...
BJSW
Enter RyBBS
with features like:
(N
m
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O
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VO
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Os
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$ 75.00 single node*
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Call: (714) 681-6210
Boardwatch - December 1992 67
listing about a thousand different
book reviews in 25 categories.
The prices are unimpressive, with
the books listed at their list cover
price. But for each $1 in books you
order, you get three “Book Marks”.
These book marks can then be ap-
plied to the purchase of additional
books. You can get a free book worth
up to $20 for example for 400 book
marks. According to Stack, it works
out to about a 15% discount. Ship-
ping charges were quite reasonable
- UPS ground is a flat rate of $3.85.
And 10% of all profits from the
system go to Reading Is Funda-
mental (RIF) a national non-profit
dedicated to promoting literacy. You
can return any book in good condi-
tion within 30 days for a full refund.
The system is plain in presentation,
but quite easy to use. The primary
sin of this BBS is youth. Online
since late February, they’re attract-
ing about 35 new callers per week.
As it reaches a critical mass of call-
ers, we think it will develop into a
very interesting system for book
lovers, on top of the obvious utility
of being able to search for and order
books easily. Book Stacks Unlim-
ited, Inc. 1375 E. 9th St., Suite 2260,
Cleveland, OH 44114; (216)861-
4609 voice; (216)694-5732 BBS.
THIS MONTH -
TACOMA
WASHINGTON
In our feature list this month, we
examine Tacoma Washington, a
mid-sized city in the upper north-
west located on the east bank of the
Puget Sound, just south of Seattle
and northeast of Olympia. Tacoma
proper houses some 176,664 warm
bodies but with the area immedi-
ately around it produces a total of
586,203 according to the 1990 cen-
sus. Rich Langsford keeps track
of who’s who in Tacoma BBS land
and was gracious enough to share
his results with us this month.
Interestingly, Langsford’s list is deja
vu all over again. He not only main-
tains a good list of local bulletin
boards, he has started adding notes
about the Tacoma online scene -
who’s meeting where and for what,
BBS Saturday morning breakfasts,
and so forth. Sounds like
Boardivatch circa 1987. He calls
the combination newsletter and list
TABBS (Tacoma Area BBS) and it
is available from his system
AmoCat BBS at (206)566-1155
each month.
The Tacoma area is a bit unusual.
First it has a rather high ratio of
bulletin boards to population with
one system for each 4804 residents.
But it also provides a good deal
more variety in platforms. Langford
counts eight Macintosh systems
among his group, six Amiga boards,
four Atari ST systems, four Com-
modore boards, and three systems
that run on the aging Apple II.
Actually, there is even a CP/M sys-
tem still creaking along under the
auspices of the Metal Message Sys-
tem BBS software as the Toggle
BBS.
The most popular BBS software
package in the Tacoma area is Mus-
tang Software’s Wildcat! BBS, with
Andrew Milner’s Remote Access
(RA) package placing second in the
“what software do we run this week”
sweepstakes. And like most areas,
Tacoma produces its share of inter-
esting BBS titles. Kaptain K Mart’s
Blue Light Special is probably a
bargain and we would expect all
issues get a thorough discussion on
the Dead Horse BBS.
Introducing
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sacrificing Jim! Lots of ways to
keep users from getting bored
with the game, automatically or
manually.
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Get the game people are really
talking about - The Wild Side!
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or (508) 429-8385 (BBS)
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“Bit Bucket Software” and “The Wild Side!" are
trademarks of Bit Bucket Software. Co. "TDBS” is a
trademark of eSoft. Inc. Recommended for user
audiences over 18 years of age only. TBBS 2.2
and TDBS 1.2 required. Copyright © 1992 Bit
Bucket Software, Co., a Delaware corporation.
68 Boardivatch - December 1992
s ire
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Boardwatch - December 1992 69
TACOMA WASHINGTON
Area Code 206
List of 122 Electronic Bulletin Boards
Courtesy Richard Langsford, AmoCat BBS 1:138/115 (206)566-1155
TITLE
PHONE
SOFT
SPEED
SYSOP
IFilemaster BBS(node1 )
.565-9776
Wildcat!
9600
"Delbert"
5th Avenue
..847-8374
Virtual BBS
2400
“Moliere”
ABChat
.848-9511
DLX
2400
Kris Engles
AmoCat BBS
.566-1155
Wildcat!
9600
Rich Langsford
Arctic Net
.565-9740
Opus
9600
Rob Barker
Attack Line
.840-2445
QuickBBS
9600
Dave Reed
Awakening BBS
.582-5579
Maximus
9600
Ron Amos
Back Gate BBS
.964-2033
SuperBBS
9600
Charles Cooper
Backwoods BBS
.847-5058
2400
"Uncle Pat”
BatCave
.756-2054
Virtual BBS
9600
"Batman”
Beyond BBS
.475-0402
Hermes
9600
“The Force"
Beyond Reality
..564-6702
DLG Pro
9600
Bill Wolfe
Big Boys Toys
..862-8896
Wildcat!
9600
Paul Kratzke
BoardRoom BBS
..847-1763
RA
2400
Bill McPhail
Bridge of Sighs
..952-0247
Spitfire
9600
“Sysop"
Bunny Board
..841-3899
Hermes
2400
“Da Masta”
Byte Me
..581-6244
Hermes
2400
"Stickman" (4p-6a)
Calc Sys
..967-3606
RA
2400
Debbie Sklar
Cat’s Paws
..584-7895
Maximus
9600
Jim Smith
Centaur Aisle
..536-6492
SuperBBS
9600
“Old Fogie”
Cesspools in Eden
..756-8063
Aftershock
9600
"The Crazy One"
Club Digital
..848-9629
Xenolink
2400
Steve Rowe
Collector’s BBS
..564-1109
QuickBBS
2400
Jack Revis
Come Sail Away BBS
..964-0580
Citadel
2400
“Gravity"
Computer Factor II
..848-7306
Virtual BBS
9600
Shon Sullivan
Craig’s BBS
..582-7970
Spitfire
2400
Craig Findley
Crossroads BBS
..848-2831
QuickBBS
9600
David Reed
Death Strike
..840-2251
Citadel
2400
“Striker”
Dis Array
..588-2595
RA
2400
Mikel Kirk
Doomed to Failure
..759-1724
Citadel
2400
“Valley Boy"
Dura Europos
..588-0638
GBBS
2400
“Trajan”
Eagles BBS
..531-8304
Wildcat!
9600
Leonard Blakely
Electric Flamingo
..473-6561
RA
9600
Charlie Quante
Electronic Advertiser
..847-3329
TriBBS
2400
Jerry Weaver
Employment Network
.475-0665
SuperBBS
2400
Dave McCoy
Forgotten Realms
..848-5299
Tempest
9600
“Hotrod"
FPS Technical Board
.565-9465
TBBS
2400
FPS
Golden Sub II
.536-3878
Citadel
2400
Dan Brinkman
Group Medical
..581-9088
RA
2400
Ismail Arslangiray
Grownup’s Playground
..588-3792
Wildcat!
9600
Bruce Martin (ADULT)
Heaven s Door
..581-3466
QuickBBS
9600
“The Pastor"
Holiday's Inn
.472-1218
Wildcat!
9600
“Doc Holiday”
Huggybear’s Den
.582-8285
Omni 128
2400
“Huggybear"
Info Board
..759-4391
Ironhenge
2400
Darin
Insanity Loves Company
..565-6036
Telix Host
2400
Scott Wright
ISMC Oeric II
..535-3697
SuperBBS
2400
"Starcrow”
John's Genes
..756-5160
Opus
9600
John English
Keithley Komputer
...759-5550
Opus
9600
Susan Cox
King’s Dominion
...843-2817
Opus
2400
Jeff King (7p-5a)
Lakewood Fire Dept
...840-2066
QuickBBS
9600
Dave Reed
Land of Oz
...473-1788
Image
2400
“Oz”
Last Frontier
...847-8168
SuperBBS
9600
Mark Pittenger
Library
...565-0690
0)64
2400
"Gertrude"
Mac Air
...475-4146
Hermes
2400
"The Captain"
Mandrake's World
...475-6692
Searchlight
9600
Steve Wienecke
MIDI Exchange
...383-8072
Forem
2400
Jack W Rice (6p-9a)
Missing Link BBS
...536-3235
Searchlight
2400
Steven Hall
Misspent Youth
...537-6280
PCBoard
9600
"Cyrano”
Mobike Maniac
...964-5306
Spitfire
2400
Birgit Murphy
Moody Blues
...846-2616
RA
2400
Bernie Schau
Night Magic
...535-4746
PCBoard
9600
"Poledra”
Nightfall
...565-0637
Citadel
2400
Rob Evers
Nightforce BBS
...472-6967
Tempest
9600
"Swally"
NNNOGCC BBS (ham/mars)
...272-6032
Wildcat!
2400
Tim Mauch(10p-4p)
North End Skyscraper
...756-9689
Opus
9600
Lee Fellenberg
Northwest Exposure
...922-2692
WWIV
2400
Jo Vangelder
Northwest Fishing Tips
...863-2098
Maximus
2400
Rod Dills (5p-8a)
NWAP Chess Board
...565-0594
Prime
2400
Doug
Omni World 128
...536-9353
Omni 128
9600
"Dr. Midi"
Online Express II
...581-3310
Wildcat!
2400
"Marsman”
70 Boardwatch - December 1992
BBS: 122
POPULATION: 586,203
AREA: 1675.6 Square Miles
BBS Per Population: 1 :4804
BBS Per Area: 1 :13.73 sq. mi
TOP TITLES
Wildcat! 19
Remote Access 12
Citadel 1 1
Opus 8
Hermes 8
Spitfire 7
SuperBBS 7
QuickBBS 6
All Other 44
TITLE
PHONE
SOFT
SPEED
SYSOP
OS9 Tacoma 566
Outdoor Focus 565-
Ozone Pro Express , 759-
Pacific N W Archive 627-
Parthenon 474-
PC Madhouse 581
Peachy Keeno Inn 539
Pembroke Castle 474
Pilgrim’s Progress 952
Purgatory 566
Racer’s Edge 863
Shooting Star ][ BBS 589
Silent Sentry 984
Silent Sentry (node 2) 588
Space/Time Continuum 536
Starfleet BBS 535-
Sub S*P*A*C*E* BBS 473-
SuperShareware BBS 535-
T.A.C.O. BBS 475-
Tacoma Recovery 862
Techno Mikey’s Shop 582
Tequila Sunrise 846
The Aquarium 847
The Big Easy BBS 952
The Blue Light Special 588
The Boardwalk 941
The Coffee Shop 565
The Cubby Hole 572
The Dead Horse BBS 473
The Exchange Club 964
The Generic BBS 584
The Glass Head 847
The Halls of Justice 565
The King’s Coven 922-
The Legend BBS 536-
The Looking Glass 535-
The Medieval BBS 582-
The Meeting Place 536-
The Reef 848-
The Right Place node 1 581-
The Tunnel 759-
The Warped Dog 536-
Toggle 759-
Total Access Board 472-
Trauma Central 531-
Unicorn/NWAP BBS 472-
Up Town’s BBS 572-
Vanguard II 582-
West Coast Adult Net 564-
Wood Creek BBS 536-
Your Mom 475-
Your Name Here BBS 564-
8857 RIBB 2400 Chris Johnson
7730 Opus 2400 Craig Buchman
3002 BBS Express 2400 “T-Dome”
6094 Wildcat! 9600 Michael Moore
2872 Waffle 2400 Mike Singleton
-6361 WWIV 9600 Eric Hermes
-0804 Spitfire 9600 Gail Carlson
-0684 SuperBBS 9600 Lady Darlene
-4522 C-Net 0-1 “Prophet”
-1827 Citadel 2400 “Pope & Angel"
-5877 PCBoard 9600 Tim Fierro
-5906 ???? 9600 “Disk Crasher"
-1048 RA 9600 Damien Latrace
-2285 RA 2400 Damien Latrace
-1528 RA 2400 Dana Booth(8p-5:30a)
-5717 Hermes 2400 “Phaser"
-6587 BBS Express 2400 Mike Isakson
-1995 Wildcat! 2400 Greg Randall
-8084 Maximus 2400 Malcolm Clark
-381 5 QuickBBS 2400 Don T. (AA/1 2-step)
-9393 Opus 2400 Michael Bednarczyk
-1564 Wildcat! 2400 “Arrow" &’’Lady Red"
-4553 Citadel 2400 Damian Johnson
-7142 Wildcat! 9600 Danny Stephens
-3973 Citadel 2400 “Kaptain K Mart”
-3124 Wildcat! 9600 Dave Cody
-6306 Omni 128 2400 “P.l."
-3225 Hermes 2400 “The Hermit"
-4338 TriBBS 9600 Steve Wisher(1 2m-6a)
-5949 Wildcat! 2400 "Tin Man’’
-5960 Citadel 2400 “Generic Man"
-4553 SuperBBS 2400 Damian Johnson
■0603 DLG Pro 2400 Keith Zaback
-0789 Telegard 2400 “The King"
■6765 RA 2400 “King Eldaron”
■891 7 Maximus 2400 Marc Blakely
2023 RA 2400 “King Edward"
6993 Wildcat! 2400 David Kreg
3371 BBS Express 9600 Dan Harris
APPL Hermes 2400 Scot Herring
7601 Hermes 2400 Pat Nicholson
0423 Opus 2400 Andy Roberts
7298 METL 2400 Bob Thompson
9884 TBBS 9600 Dick Fairchild
9309 Wildcat! 2400 “Nite Nurse"
9331 GBBS 2400 Marvin McDonald Jr.
2548 Spitfire 2400 Richard & Margarita
1185 RA 9600 John Haste
4955 Wildcat! 2400 “Foxy Lady" (ADULT)
•8480 Spitfire 9600 Don Strate
8399 Citadel 2400 “B Man"
■5303 Citadel 9600 "Zake Zuke"
Boardwatch - December' 1992 71
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Board watch - December 1992 73
BOARDWATCH
LIST OF BBS UST KEEPERS
This listing comprises a list of those who compile and maintain lists of bulletin boards, either by topical
category, or by some geographic area or definition - often by area code. The primary bulletin board system
where the list can be downloaded electronically is also included.
BBS LIST TOPIC
LIST AUTHOR/EDITOR
CONTACT BBS
TELEPHONE
96 List - 9600+bps BBS
Ken Sukimoto
Downtown BBS
(213)484-0260
AC 516 Free Shareware BBS
Harold Stein
Long Island Exchange
(516)385-7882
Airline Pilot/JUMPSEAT BBSs
Rex Chadwell
ChicAAgo Hangar
(708)980-1613
Apple II BBS with Internet con
Morgan Davis
pro-sol
(619)670-5379
Area Code 21 5 PA and 609 NJ
Ron Brandt
Sataiink BBS
(215)364-3324
Area Code 517 - Mid-Michigan
Rick Rosinski/SAMM
Wolverine BBS
(517)695-9952
Arkansas Area 501
Bob Underdown
The Gaslight BBS
(501)444-8420
ASP BBS Member List
Bob Ostrander
PBS-BBS
(317)856-2087
Astronomy/Space BBS
John Pickens
Starbase III
(209)432-2487
Atlanta Area 404
Rodney Aloia
INDEX System
(404)924-8472
Atlanta Area 404
Online Atlanta Society
OASIS
(404)627-2662
Austin Area BBS List AC 512
Michael Allen Menoskey
-=ACE*BBS=-
(512)258-9989
Autocad Related BBS
Jason Osgood
Alacrity BBS
(206)643-5477
Baltimore Area 301
Phillip Bailey
Baltimore BBS News
(301)633-7870
BBS With Handicapped Focus
Bill McGarry
Handicap News BBS
(203)337-1607
Black Issue BBS
Arthur McGee
BDPA Bay Area BBS
(707)552-3314
California AC 310
Jim Walton
Illusions BBS
(310)804-3324
Central California AC 209
Jack Porter/Madera UG
Zen Den Systems
(209)675-8436
Central California Area 805
Larry Honore
His Board
(805)652-1478
Chicago
David Nathan
HURK BBS
(708)801-0823
Chicago
Colby Jordan/Peter Anvin
Still waters
(708)403-2826
Cleveland Area 216
Eric Rickin
Wine Cellar
(216)382-2558
CompuCom Modem BBS List
Thomas Weathers
Referral Market BBS
(803)297-4395
Computer Shopper BBS List
BBS Press Service
CS List BBS
(913)478-3088
Connecticut AC 203
Kevin Brook
Creative Edge BBS
(203)743-4044
Conservation/Nature BBS List
D.Wendling/JS Christiansc
i Osprey's Nest
(301)989-9036
Dallas/Ft Worth Area 214/817
Mark Robbins
Second Sanctum
(817)784-1178
Darwin National BBS List
Meade Frierson
USBBS Update Line
(202)547-3037
Desktop Publishing BBS
Frank Atlee
Infinite Perspective
(301)924-0398
Detroit Area 313
Horst Mann
Tony’s Corner
(313)754-1131
Ecology/Conservation BBS
Bob Chapman
EarthArt BBS
(803)552-4389
Engineering Related BBS
Arthur Petrzelka
Computer Plumber
(319)337-6723
Geneology Related BBS
Richard A. Pence
NGS-CIG
(703)528-2612
Graphical User Interface BBS
David Shapiro
The Gooey (GUI) BBS
(212)876-5885
Ham/Amateur Radio BBS
Stan Staten
3WINKs BBS
(301)590-9629
Handicapped Issues BBS
Richard Barth
HEX BBS
(301)593-7357
74 Boardwatch - December 1992
BBS LIST TOPIC
LIST AUTHOR/EDITOR
CONTACT BBS
TELEPHONE
Houston Area 713
David E. Wachenschwanz
Atomic Cafe BBS
(713)530-8875
Kansas City Area 81 6/91 3
Roy Timberman
Sound Advice
(816)436-4516
Kitsap County Washington
Michael Schuyler
Quicksilver BBS
(206)780-201 1
List of Gay/Lesbian BBS
Eric Blair
S-TEK BBS
(514)597-2409
Macintosh BBS
Bill Taylor
Fort Mill Tabby
(803)548-0900
Medical Issues BBS
Edward Del Grosso
Black Bag
(302)731-1998
Milwaukee Area 414
Jay Jadofsky
Priplanus
(414)442-0170
Minnesota Twin Cities AC 612
Barry Watson
Abiogenetic BBS
(612)489-7983
NAPLPS Graphics BBS
Ed Pimentel
IHBC BBS
(404)498-4254
National 800 Number BBS List
Michael Long
Hayes Online
(800)874-2937
National Adult BBS List
Clayton Manson
Titan BBS 1 :3612/140
(904)476-1270
National BBS List
DP Mclntire/Beth Spotts
Ameriboard
(412)349-6862
New Jersey Area 201/609/908
Wayne R. Morton
Praedo BBS
(609)953-0769
New Orleans BBS List
Jeff Jones
Southern Star BBS
(504)885-5928
Ontario Area 705
Alex Draper
Cottage Country BBS
(705)835-6192
Open Access UNIX Site List
Phil Eschallier
LGNP1 (login:BBS)
(215)348-9727
Orlando Florida AC 407
Matt Drury
London BBS
(407)423-5226
OS/2 BBS Systems
Pete Norloff
OS2/Shareware BBS
(703)385-4325
OS/2 Related BBS
Dave Fisher
LiveNet 1:170/110
(918)481-5715
Portland Oregon BBS
Lisa Gronke
DawGone Disgusted
(503)297-9145
Raleigh NC Area Code 919
Mike Stroud
Micro Message Svc.
(919)779-6674
Republic of South Africa
Henk WOlsink
Catalyst BBS
(041)34-1122
Rhode Island Area 401
Mike Labbe
Eagle’s Nest
(401)732-5292
Rochester NY AC 71 6
Tracy Logan
Logan’s Run
(716)256-2659
San Diego, CA AC 619
Ron Dipold
Computor’s Edge
(619)573-1675
San Francisco Area 408/415/510
Julie McGrew
Bay List BBS
(510)339-1045
Seattle AC 206/West Washington
Bob Dinse/Nanook
Eskimo North
(206)367-3837
Selected BBS
Joseph Caplinger & Son
J&J’s BBS
(513)236-1229
South Florida Area 305/407
Eric Thav
Silicon Beach BBS
(305)474-6512
South Jersey Area 609
Dave Schubert
The Casino EBBS
(609)561-3377
Southern California
Mike Hefferman
SOCAL Corner
(213)422-7942
Technical Support BBS List
Gary Barr
Digicom BBS
(812)479-1310
The List National BBS List
James Toro
PDSLO (The List)
(516)938-6722
Tulsa Oklahoman Area BBS List
Linda Hargraves
Access America
(918)747-2542
Boardwatch - December 1992 75
BOARDWATCH MAGAZINE
Classified Electronic Bulletin Board Advertisements
Advertise your electronic bulletin board/online information service in Boardwatch Magazine. Let our readers know
who you are and what you’re doing with on-line technology. To order a BBS ad in the Boardwatch Classified BBS
ad section, call the Boardwatch BBS at (303)973-4222 and use our online ad entry system. In addition to standard
list information, enter up to 255 characters of text describing your online service. - all for $25 per month. Master Card
w Visa only.
Chat Chalet (201)791-8850 Saddle Brook New Jersey
since 04/91 . Sysop: Ron Meier. Using Galacticomm
5.31 with 16 lines on MS-DOS 80386 with 120 MB
storage. Supra at 2400 bps. $10.00 Monthly fee. Chat
System. Send us your picture we will make it a Gif and
put it on the BBS for all to see. “Where New Friends
Meet"
Jezebel’s Parlour BBS (201)927-2932 Flanders New
Jersey since 04/92. Sysop: Beverly Delisa. Using TBBS
2.2M with 6 lines on MS-DOS 80386 with 120 MB
storage. U.S. Robotics at 9600 bps. $50.00 Annually
fee. Over 3 gigabytes of files, including adult graphics.
New in-house scanned Gif files added each week.
Online games and databases, user to user chat, confer-
ence areas, and adult matchmaking. The BBS with the
feminine touch.
Bruce’s Bar & Grill (203)236-3761 West Hartford
Connecticutt since 08/83. Sysop: Bruce Lomasky. Us-
ing TBBS 2.2M with 24 lines on MS-DOS 80386 with
300 MB storage. U.S. Robotics at 14400 bps. $2
Monthly fee. Bruce's Bar and Grill has a similar atmo-
sphere to TV's “Cheers". Public, private, and over 21
conference sections. Many regulars stop by and chat
each day. Many online games (some multiuser real
time) and thousands of IBM files. Hayes/T elebit/USR
9600
Computers & Dreams BBS (212)888-6565 New York
New York since 01/91. Sysop: William P. Stewart.
Using PCBoard 14.5a/E6 with 6 lines on MS-DOS
80486 with 2600 MB storage. U.S. Robotics at 57600
bps. No fee. New York City’s Best BBS! You don’t
believe us? Well call and find out for yourself. It's FREE.
How can you go wrong? Dozens of GAMES, 1000s of
FILES, 1000s of GIFs, USA Today & Boardwatch
Magazine ON-Line. Prizes, RIME & ThrobNet, PC
Pursuitable: NYNYO.
The B C S BBS (213)962-2902 Los Angeles California
since 02/92. Sysop: Bill Weinman. Using Wildcat 3.51 p
with 4 lines on MS-DOS 80486 with 1500 MB storage.
U.S. Robotics at 16800 bps. $52 Annually fee. Los
Angeles (213 A/C) BBS- The B-C-S BBS, Four High
Speed Modems (DS) and growing. Gigs of files with the
latest files added every day. Robocomm, Qsoftware
support. Intelligent Coversations, Excellent Confer-
ences, expanding On-Line Servies.Free Access.
The Anterra Network (215)675-3851 Hatboro Penn-
sylvania since 03/90. Sysop: Steve Ferguson. Using
WildCat! 3.52 with 6 lines on MS-DOS 80486 with 2300
MB storage. U.S. Robotics at 14400 bps. $5 Monthly
fee. Philadelphia Area’s Best BBS! Basic access is
free, so give us a call! Over 8,000 Files online. 10,000
Messages on 3 national Nets. Many online games
(Some multi-user Real time). Adult areas with our own
Models. Swinger's Connections. Six way chats.
The Newtown Express BBS (215)860-9724 Newtown
Pennsylvania since 10/91. Sysop: Anthony Maglietta.
Using PCBoard 1 4.5a with 6 lines on a high-speed LAN
with 6000 MB storage. U.S. Robotics at 1 6.8K bps. $1 5
Quarterly fee. Supporting 2400-1 6.8K and HST. 37,000+
files on-line. 900+ Megs Adult. 3+ Megs of new uploads
daily. We do custom scanning! 500 sigs. You request
a door and we will set it up! (1 per subscription). All
nodes run on dedicated 386/25's. Call today!
PCBOARD BBS OPERATORS
Clark Development Company,
Inc., developer of PCBoard BBS
Software, has made a standing
offer to pay 50% of the cost of
classified advertisements in
Boardwatch Magazine placed by
any BBS that notes their use of
PCBoard 14.5a or later software.
Your cost for an ad here: $12.50
VB/OnLine (216)694-5734 Cleveland Ohio since 07/
31 . Sysop: Charles Stack. Using TBBS 2.2M with 2
lines on MS-DOS 80386 with 700 MB storage. Multitech
at 9600 bps. $19.50 Annually fee. New BBS dedicated
solely to supporting Visual Basic programmers. Fea-
tures include: hundreds of files (freeware, shareware,
demos, tips, tricks); e-mail system for questions, an-
swers, and discussions; discounts for subscribers on
VB Books and VB products.
Book Stacks Unlimited, Inc. (216)861-0469 Cleve-
land Ohio since 03/92. Sysop: Charles Stack. Using
TBBS 2.2 with 8 lines on MS-DOS 80486 with 2000 MB
storage. Multitech at 9600 bps. No fee. On-line book
store and reader’s conference with over 600,000 titles.
Search for books by author, title or subject. Pick your
titles, place your order and we’ll ship them directly to
you. Earn credit for FREE books. VISA/MC/AMEX/
DISCOVER accepted.
Boundary Waters BBS (218)365-6907 Ely Minnesota
since 04/01 . Sysop: Gary Knopp. Using QuickBBS 2.75
with 2 lines on MS-DOS 80486 with 245 MB storage.
Supra at 14400 bps. No fee. Complete information for
Northwoods recreation, Boundary Waters Canoe Area,
Superior National Forest, Wilderness Canoe Trips,
Fishing, Boating, Camping, Sleddog Trips, Cross coun-
try skiing, Resorts, Northwoods Catalog Sales. FREE
Stoic Financial BBS (303)238-0588 Wheat Ridge
Colorado since 08/91. Sysop: Richard Hiatt. Using
WildCat 1 .03 with 1 line on MS-DOS 80386 with 1 20 MB
storage. Hayes at 2400 bps. No fee. Financial Informa-
tion on all markets, commodities, stocks, futures and
options. Gif charts, spreadsheet ready templates. 1-2-
3 ready price history files. Dir. of Investment & Trading
Professionals. Educational & Technical info on trading
strategies.
THE PEAK BBS (303)360-7680 Aurora Colorado since
02/92. Sysop: Jon Almon. Using Galacticomm Major
6.02 with 2 lines on MS-DOS 80486 with 1000 MB
storage. Practical Peripheral at 9600 bps. $15.00 An-
nually fee. The very best & latest shareware each week!
Many Forums: Authors, Writers, Modem Games, Cable
TV, Communications, TV, Satellite, Humor and More.
Chat, E-Mail, Classifieds and Large ADULT area. Online
Multi-player GAMES! Free Demo Line 303-360-6089
THe GaRBaGe DuMP BBS (303)457-1111 Denver,
CO & Albuquerque. NM since 12/90. Sysop: Simon
Clement/Dean Kerl/David Kerl. Using Galacticomm
MBBS 3.51 with 39 lines on MS-DOS 80486 with 635
MB storage. Supra at 1 4400 bps. $ FREE 90 Days fee.
Access in Albuquerque: 505-294-5675 FREE w/Vali-
dation Form. INSTANT Validation with Visa/MC. Online
ADULT CHAT, files, multiplayer games,
UNCENSORED SIGs. 1200+ Calls/Day,
PURSUITABLE. Our motto says it all: CAUTION!
ADULTS AT PLAY! Voice 505-294-4980.
The Comm-Post (303)534-4646 Denver Colorado
since 06/86. Sysop: Brian P. Bartee. Using TBBS 2.2M
with 8 lines on MS-DOS 8088 with 3000 MB storage.
U.S. Robotics at 14400 bps. $40 Annually fee. ASP-
Approved BBS & one of the finest collections of IBM-
Compatible Shareware. Many free download areas
including extensive libraries of Astronomy Software &
Data files. Access to 1 00's of Message Echos. VISA/
MC/AMEX/DISCOVER Welcome. Voice: (303)534-
4538
METROLINE BBS (303)556-3824 Denver Colorado
since 06/92. Sysop: Walt Copley. Using TBBS 2.2 with
1 line on MS-DOS 80386 with 20 MB storage. Hayes at
9600 bps. No fee. Phil Becker used this one to illustrate
the range and diversity of BBS. Visit Cyberspace
Classroom for college credit for on-line classes. Re-
view & submit your expertise to Professional Publish-
ing; check the Reunion Registry for your class reunion.
Pinecliffe BBS (303)642-7463 Pinecliffe Colorado since
01/82. Sysop: Craig Baker. Using Ultrabbs 2.09Beta
with 14 lines on MS-DOS 80386 with 9500 MB storage.
U.S. Robotics at 14400 bps. No fee. Largest BBS in
RockyMtn Area. FREE ($20/yr gets 2hrs/day. $100
Lifetime membership.) 60,000 zips. CD-Roms online.
Games. Home of CDBREG - allows immediate up-
grades with credit card. Sysop also a computer store.
NightOwl Rom $59. Help us grow.
76 Boardwatch - December 1992
Sound Doctrine Church’s BBS (303)680-7209 Aurora
Colorado since 01 /87. Sysop: Tim Williams. Using TBBS
2.2M with 3 lines on MS-DOS 80386 with 700 MB
storage. Supra at 9600 bps. No fee. For serious Chris-
tianity only! Where non-believers can ask the questions
their Christian friends wish they wouldn’t. Free items
can be ordered while on-line. Look for the women's
echo called Adam’s Rib and our international echos.
Find out who equals 666
Rocky Mountain Information Exchange (303)791-
4330 Highlands Ranch Colorado since 08/82. Sysop:
Larry Kayser. Using TBBS 2.2M with 4 lines on MS-
DOS 80486 with 1200 MB storage. U.S. Robotics at
14400 bps. $49.95 Annually fee. Featuring multi-user
games. Social, Technical and Adults only worldwide
message areas and multi-line “CB” chat areas. Social
and Adults only matchmakers. 1, 3, 6, and 12 month
memberships available. Limited free access. Registra-
tion required.
Data Point (303)973-9454 Denver Colorado since 01/
83. Sysop: Gary W Funk. Using TBBS 2.2M with 1 line
on MS-DOS 80386 with 1 100 MB storage. U.S. Robot-
ics at 14400 bps. $30 Annually fee. Online publications,
and multi-player games. Large library of SDN, SDS,
and TDN files. Support for MS-DOS. TBBS, TDBS,
TIMS and TMail support. NetWork and FidoNet mes-
sage areas.
The Serial Port (313)286-0145 Mt.Clemens Michigan
since 03/82. Sysop: Stu Jackson. Using TBBS 2.2M
with 8 lines on MS-DOS 80386 with 3600 MB storage.
ZyXEL at 16.8 bps. $45 Annually fee. C’mon by for a
chat and a few files. THOUSANDS of Files with Adult
sections available. Many on-line games. Call today for
a FREE look around, or Download our entire file list for
your proofing at a later time. Home of the File Utility
MOVE for TBBS!!
HAL 9000 BBS (313)663-4173 Ann Arbor Michigan
since 03/88. Sysop: Victor R. Volkman. Using PCBoard
14.5a with 4 lines on MS-DOS 80386 with 1500 MB
storage. Hayes at 14400 bps. $20 Annually fee. Ar-
chives of all Association of Shareware Professionals
(ASP) software on line. Large SciFi GIF collection.
Internet/Usenet e-mail and newsgroups from around
the world. Special file areas devoted to Star Trek and
The Prisoner TV shows and much more!
Meeting House BBS (401)848-2200 Portsmouth
Rhode Island since 01/91. Sysop: John O’Donnell.
Using Galacticomm 5.31 with 13 lines on MS-DOS
80486 with 1 100 MB storage. Supra 2400i & MICC at
9600 bps. $.75 Hourly fee. 6 CD ROMS Shareware for
Apple, IBM, Commodore.Atari. Adult files. Networked
through NE Telephone INFOPATH (32 ch.). Paid users
issued a network userid. Live chat on 45 lines & via
Public Data Network. Online games. Computer Re-
search Services.MUCH MORE.
IHBC NAPLPS/ ASCII/ANSI BBS (404)498-4254 At-
lanta Georgia since 10/90. Sysop: E. Pimentel. Using
TurBOARD.042 with 1 line on MS-DOS 80386 with 240
MB storage. Hayes at 9600 bps. No fee. Premier
NAPLPS bbs for Multimedia, Telecommuting
cognosentis. Home of MultimediaUSER Group, Multi-
media Newsletter( written is animator Pro), Annual Mul-
timedia Resource Directory. Annual Telecommuter Di-
rectory. FidoNet, Internet. TurBoard naplps Beta Site.
Multiline Metropolis (404)552-0467 Atlanta Gerogia
since 09/15. Sysop: Chris Boaro. Using Omega Point/
21.1 with 1 0 lines on 486DX266 with 1 20 MB storage.
Aceex at 2400 bps. No fee. 10 Lines, Live Chat,
Shareware Downloads, Dozens of message forums.
Omega Point/2 software features hundreds of unique
chat actions, private rooms, fast response. Full color
scanning free to users, Usenet Internet access and
more lines coming soon.
Greenpeace - Environet (415)512-9108 San Fran-
cisco California since 01/88. Sysop: Dick Dillman.
Using TBBS 2.2M with 6 lines on MS-DOS 80286 with
100 MB storage. U.S. Robotics at 2400 bps. No fee.
Your source for information about Greenpeace and the
environment. Conferences onToxics, Energy, Forests,
Disarmament and more. Greenpeace press releases
updated daily. Never a fee, new users welcome!
Baudeville BBS (416)283-0114 Toronto Ontario
Canada since 03/92. Sysop: Ian Evans. Using PCBoard
14.5a with 2 lines on MS-DOS 80386 with 2000 MB
storage. U.S. Robotics at 14400 bps. $36 Annually fee.
1200 Usenet areas, RIME, Intelec, Nanet, Biz$Link,
City2City, Echonet, Throbnet, Medianet and Fidonet.
1 .3+ gig of files. Over 2100 confs. Internet mail. Fido:
1:250/304. The Economical Email Emporium. $48
membership gets you $185 in hw/sw coupons!
The U.S.A. BBS (501)863-0311 El Dorado Arkansas
since 06/81 . Sysop: Jeff Johnson. Using TBBS 2.2 with
4 lines on MS-DOS 80486 with 2500 MB storage. U.S.
Robotics at 19200 bps. $30+ Annually fee. One of the
world’s oldest BBS. Low yearly rates starting at $30. A
large selection of DOS programs & 1000+ MB Adult
GIFS. Adult section. Conference area. Multi-player
games. User-friendly system. Truely a unique BBS.
Visa & MasterCard welcome.
Cul-de-Sac Bar & Grill (508)429-1784 Holliston Mas-
sachusetts since 03/85. Sysop: Pete White. Using
TBBS 2.2M with 5 lines on MS-DOS 80286 with 380 MB
storage. U.S. Robotics at 14400 bps. $45 Annually fee.
The home of many TBBS/TDBS software packages,
and an almost continuous beta site for many TBBS/
TDBS software authors. Like Ben Cunningham's 1 0,000
message system with full screen editing and quoting,
and Jeff Johnsons On-Line Sales Manager.
UNIXLAND Public Access UNIX (508)655-3848 Natick
Massachusetts since 01/88. Sysop: Bill Heiser. Using
UniBoard 1.10 with 5 lines on UNIX with 1000 MB
storage. Telebit at 19200 bps. $65.00 Annually fee.
Offers over 2500 USENET newsgroups. Unix SHELL
accts at slight add’l charge.
America’s Suggestion Box (ASB) (516)471-8606
Ronkonkoma New York since 02/92. Sysop: Joe
Jerszynski. Using TBBS 2.2M with 4 lines on MS-DOS
80486 with 2200 MB storage. U.S. Robotics at 14400
bps. No fee. 13000+ files, ASP approved with a rapidly
expanding filebase, Boardwatch. USA Today, ODMR,
Video Online. Would you like to see a computer product
or service improved? Come see why you and ASB can
make a difference! Generous access time & download
priv.
The Game Peddler BBS (516)493-0186 Commack
New York since 09/88. Sysop: John Sirabella. Using
WildCat! 3.5P with 5 lines on MS-DOS 80486 with 3600
MB storage. U.S. Robotics at 19200 bps. $25 Annually
fee. What do you get if you cross THE GAME PED-
DLER BBS and FISHING? One call and your hooked!
Find many thousands of files, 64 Conferences, 50
Doors and 90+ Bulletins. Give us a call today and find
out what you have been missing!
Wolverine (517)631-3471 Midland Michigan since 07/
88. Sysop: Rick Rosinski. Using Searchlight 2.25B with
4 lines on MS-DOS 80386 with 3000 MB storage. U.S.
Robotics at 19200 bps. $35 Annually fee. Over 25,000
messages with TriCityNet/FidoNet/SL_NET. Over 50
online games. Over 1 5,000 files updated constantly: 5-
10 megs weekly. Extensive file sections for Windows/
DESQview/Games/Utils. Mid-Michigan’s Largest BBS.
ASP Approved. SB Digest
The Adult File Cabinet BBS (517)7924680 Saginaw,
Michigan since 01/91. Sysop: Ronald Gage. Using
PCBoard 14.5a/E3 with 2 lines on MS-DOS 80386 with
1500 MB storage. U.S. Robotics at 14400 bps. $30.00
Annually fee. Large Adult BBS, Visa/MC subsciption
($5.00 surcharge), File trades available, friendly opera-
tor and atmosphere. 90 minutes a day for subscribers,
no download limits or ratios to bother with. Color
scanning available.
“Delight The Customer” BBS (51 7)797-3740 Saginaw
Michigan since 1 2/91 . Sysop: Dennis A. Hauser. Using
TBBS 2.2M with 4 lines on MS-DOS 80386 with 200 MB
storage. Hayes at 9600 bps. $57 Per 6 Mont fee.
Relaxed networking, productivity-enhancing files, na-
tionwide jobs database and vendor exhibits for Cus-
tomer Service, Training, Help Desk. Telemarketing and
QA/QC professionals. Business Professional BBS List.
Call & list your bus/prof oriented BBS today!
AIS Multiline (604)489-4206 Cranbrook, BC Canada
since 03/89. Sysop: Chris Pinnell. Using Galacticomm
5.31 with 4 lines on MS-DOS 80386 with 1200 MB
storage. U.S. Robotics at 16800 bps. $5.00 Monthly
fee. A great place to meet new people, AIS Multiline is
one of the fastest growing BBSes in western Canada,
offering 2 CD Roms to download from, as well as the
latest files from ASP authors, Teleconferencing, friendly
users, on-line games - ASK FOR FREE TIME
CARDZ BBS (604)734-5800 Vancouver, BC, Canada
since 03/90. Sysop: John Smith. Using TBBS 2.2M with
30 lines on MS-DOS 80486 with 5600 MB storage. U.S.
Robotics at 19200 bps. $60 Annually fee. Specializing
in imaging & sound. Home to Fracterm, an online real
time graphics viewer for any BBS. We also offer
NewsByte, 4 CD-ROM’s, 10 message and 11 file
networks. Amex, Visa or Mcard accepted. 14 Day trial
membership given to all new users.
The 3rd Eye Electronic Erotic Magazine (615)227-
61 55 Nashville Tennessee since 05/86. Sysop: Michael
Vetter. Using TBBS 2.2M with 4 lines on MS-DOS
80486 with 1000 MB storage. Hayes at 9600 bps. $30
Annually fee. A friendly gathering place for couples and
singles with an interest in the swinging lifestyle. Per-
sonal ads (all lifestyles), digitized photos of members,
online chat, adult downloads, club information, Unique
echos, lifestyle support, multiuser games.
Anomalous BBS (615)952-9396 Nashville Tennes-
see since 06/90. Sysop: Roger D. Cook. Using
Galacticomm Ver 6.0 with 6 lines on MS-DOS 80486
with 250 MB storage. U.S. Robotics at 9600 bps. $$24
Annually fee. Best online Chat in Tenn! Multi-Player
Games (9), Many Forums & Files relating to Aero-
Space. Wells CompuStar Users Group, Space Drives
Experimenters Group.
Executive Connection Online (617)621-6090 Cam-
bridge Massachusetts since 00/86. Sysop: Annie &
Marcia. Using Major BBS 6.0 with 15 lines on MS-DOS
80386 with 200 MB storage. Hayes at 9600 bps. $10-
30 Annually fee. Featuring File Library, E-mail. SIG’s,
Games, Trivia, Action Teleconference. Global Chat-
ting, Global Actions, Telegrams, Online Shopping Mall.
(Visa/MC accepted) Home to some of the friendliest
BBSers in New England. Stop by and say hello!
THE DEN (617)662-6969 Boston Massachusetts since
04/92. Sysop: Chip Green. Using TBBS 2.2M with 6
lines on MS-DOS 80386 with 1000 MB storage. Cardi-
nal at 2400 bps. $40 Annually fee. Especially designed
for the Gay & Lesbian community. Chat, email, network
conferences, city guide, bookstore, online services,
data & file bases, games, programs, pictures, stories,
social outings & much more.
Boardwatch - December 1992 77
The File Bank (619)728-4318 Fallbrook California
since 02/87. Sysop: Bob Laszko. Using PCBoard 1 4.5a /
E10 with 8 lines on MS-DOS 80386 with 3000 MB
storage. U.S. Robotics at 14400 bps. $60 Annually fee.
1/3/6 mos. subscriptions too. 3 public / 5 subscription
lines - all USR modems. 200 RIME conferences. 650MB
Adult CD-ROM. The largest Clipper support confer-
ence in the world. Call and find out what 7000 users /
month are raving about!
Mirage Network-V A/The Coral Reefer BBS! (703)264-
3962 Herndon Virginia since 10/90. Sysop: Tully Mars.
Using GAP 6/M with 3 lines on MS-DOS 80386 with
1200 MB storage. U.S. Robotics at 38400 bps. $29+
1mos-4yrs fee. GIFs & Aminations for discriminating
Adults. Scanning Services Available. 16550 chips,
hard drives, monitors, modems, etc for sale. Online
subscriptions 1st call w/VISA or MC. Home of “FUD"
section! D/L CORALREG.EXE for offline registrations.
COM'ONE (708)717-9370 Naperville Illinois since 04/
92. Sysop: Craig Wells. Using Falken v6.4 with 4 lines
on MS-DOS 80386 with 2250 MB storage. Incomm at
2400 bps. $Fee Optional fee. GVC 9600 V.32 708-71 7-
9379 1 .000 Windows 3.x 730MB of GIFs. & something
for everybody. If it's worth downloading we’ve got it!
Come join Metro Chicago’s fastest growing, safe &
secured BBS. ASP Approved BBS. Free access with D /
Ls, online games & more!!
Chicago Syslink (708)795-4442 Berwyn Illinois since
06/81 . Sysop: George Matyaszek. Using TBBS 2.2M
with 9 lines on MS-DOS 80386 with 170 MB storage.
Intel at 14400 bps. $20 Annually fee. Something for
everyone! 60+ online Games, Multi Chat Lines. Latest
Files, Online Magazines & Business News! MicroMatch/
Find-A-Friend Dating Service and many other fea-
tures. We’re also Fidonet 1 1 5/622 file request capable.
Int’l Fluid Handling Components Assoc. (713)948-
9906 Houston Texas since 04/91 . Sysop: Terry Horton.
Using TBBS 2.2M with 16 lines on PVF DATABASE
with MB storage. Codex at 2400 bps. $TIME ACCESS
fee. Information database Pipe Valves Fittings Pumps
Compressors Exp. Joints etc. Specs & Faxes for
Purch.Engr. Availability for stocking Distributors. An-
nouncing free Total Quality Management Forum princi-
pals in mfg dist purch accounting, for all industries
Bits and Bytes BBS (714)356-4636 Fontana Califor-
nia since 09/91. Sysop: Barly Redsar. Using PCBoard
14.5a/E3 with 3 lines on MS-DOS 80486 with 2000 MB
storage. U.S. Robotics at 14400 bps. $10 Annually fee.
BEST BBS around! You do not believe us? Well call
and find out for yourself! Howcan you go wrong? Over
50 door games, over 15000 files online (new & current
version), over 150 RIME and Throbnet conferences.
Monthly door game prizes $$$$.
SYSTEMATIC BBS (718)716-6198 Bronx New York
since 08/92. Sysop: MUFUTAU TOWOBOLA. Using
Wildcat 3.55M with 2 lines on MS-DOS 80486 with 600
MB storage. PRATICAL PERIPHERALS at 14400 bps.
No fee. Download access on first call. Multinode on
lantastic network. CD-ROMs online, featuring latest
MS-DOS, MS-Windows, games, adults GIFs
sharewares. Worldwide echo-net message confer-
ences. 24 hours, 7 days. Supports 300-14400 mo-
dems. Call.
MonitoR MadnesS BBS (803)638-71 49 Walhalla South
Carolina since 01/92. Sysop: Bob Vissage. Using
PCBoard 14.5a/E6 with 5 lines on MS-DOS 80486 with
5800 MB storage. U.S. Robotics at 19200 bps. $$ 68
Annually fee. America’s Graphics One-Stop BBS! Over
300 BBS's WORLD-Wide represented. Over 25,000
Gifs and 800 Aninamtions. Thousands of SVGA (Hun-
dreds of 1024x768) Gifs on just about any subject. You
will have to SEE to believe! HOME of the VisScan
SuperPic (tm).
Black Gold BBS (91 8)272-7779 T ulsa Oklahoma since
06/81. Sysop: Roger Ridgway. Using PCBoard 14.5a
with 1 2 lines on MS-DOS 80486 with 5200 MB storage.
U.S. Robotics at 57600 bps. $35 Annually fee. Over
120 Rime conferences. Teleshopper. USAToday. Over
40 Doors, 4 SYSOPS, ANNEX’S and much much more.
Many free areas and files with 30 minutes free access
per day.
Micro Message Service (919)779-6674 Raleigh North
Carolina since 10/82. Sysop: Michael M. Stroud. Using
TBBS 2.2M with 1 0 lines on MS-DOS 80386 with 5200
MB storage. U.S. Robotics at 14400 bps. $45.00 Annu-
ally fee. NC’s # 1 online info service support for PC,
Mac, Amiga and Atari ST. Hundreds of new files added
weekly. Expert leaders for each SIG. Authorized eSoft
dealer, system design and TDBS programming. Give
your online system a leading edge, call us first.
REMOTE BOOTING FOR YOUR
BBS ! $69.00
Plus $4.00 S/H per unit
♦Call In & activate computer ON/OFF with touch tone
code. UL Listed. FCC Reg. 1500 Watt Rating.
♦A REMOTE power switch activated with a phone call!
The FON-HOME .ZIP file has complete info on this
device. Call THE SOLAR SYSTEM BBS 714-837-9677/3218
for information and ONLINE ordering instructions
with your VISA/MASTERCARD. Receive a $10.00 Savings
by ordering ONLINE! For $69.00 VOICE orders contact:
DELTRONIX ENTERPRISES 714-380-8969 Extension #2
26861 Trabuco #E161C, Mission Viejo, CA 92691
lit MutU+c ££5
(401) 848*200 Newport
(401) 751-1606 Providence
(401) 624-8744 Tiverton & Fall River MA
13 lines & growing
over 50,000 files available
Active CHAT membership
Multi-player Arcade style games
1 5 Nodes
BBS
9.5 Gigabyte
100,000+ files 30,000+ Adult Files
Ilink, Metronet, RIME, Throbnet, AfterDark, and Internet E-Mail
(205) 323-2016 [300-2400] (205)-323-6016 [9600+]
New callers get 50 Free hours of time and full download privileges
after Voice Validation. Rates as low as $12 per 100 hours
78 Boardwatch - December 1992
ADULT CD-ROMS
Ecstacy Hot Pics 1
. $59 Private Pictures
..$39
My Private Collection..
. $59 So Much S tare W are. ..
. $59
Nix Pix Hot Pix 1
. $89 Storm 1
. $39
Nix Pix Hot Pix 2
. $59 Storm 2
. $39
PC Pix 1
. $59 Visual Fantasies
. $59
PC Pix 2
. $89 Volcano
.. $59
Free shipping, next day, air mail, worldwide
Check / Money Order / Visa / MasterCard / Amex / COD
GOOSEBUMP GRAPHICS Must state age over 21
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^ SOFTWARE**
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Boardwatch - December 1992 79
s of Valuable
Programs On One CD
S FTVUAREWJIJ- COLLECTION I - now
available and new on the market, packed
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ranging from business to games.
Our proprietary Librarian allows key word
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Boardwntch ■ December 1992 81
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RUN JUST 24
LINES AT
RUSTY'S &
EDIE'S BBS
USING
PC BOARD
SOFTWARE.
(216) 726-0737
I
m You started out to build a multi-user BBS.
You had dreams about the service your system
would provide to your callers, the problems
you would solve and the money you would
make. But you didn’t bargain for the pile of
hardware you would live with every day and
now it controls your life.
As you compared the prices of software
you missed the fact that the design philosophy
of BBS software forces many hardware deci-
sions on you. When all costs are considered
TBBS is ALWAYS the least expensive way to
build a full function multi-user BBS. And
ONLY TBBS allows you to achieve high per-
formance with 64 high speed lines on a single
CPU with NO custom hardware.
True freedom is the ability to spend your
time as you wish. For ten years TBBS has
provided the freedom to design custom sys-
tems you can live with. Talk to real multi-user
BBS sysops. You will notice that only TBBS
operators talk first about ideas, not hardware
and software. No one gets more capability with
less impact on their lives than TBBS sysops.
2 user TBBS 2.2 $295.00, 16 users $895,
32 users $1,495 and 64 users $1,995. Add the
TDBS expansion module and compiler for
true multi-user dBASE language capability.
CALL FOR MORE INFORMATION
AND ACCESS TO A
DEMONSTRATION
SYSTEM.
( 303 ) 699 - 6565 .
i- -
■ .
152(H) E. Girard Ave.
Suite 2550
Aurora, CO 80014
version 2.2
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M U L1M • USER BBS
4
This team created a professional BBS for yW
The Afajor BBS ^
Development Team
with about 5% of the
cod ^ they wrote and
teste*<d t ii n g fry n n g
Frorr-t l e jj to right:
Bert l^ove,
Edward Bush ,
Richard Skumick ,
Tim Stryker ,
Bob Stein,
Brian Stephens,
Sheri Robert ,
Les Bird,
Chris Robert,
Scott Brinker,
Chris Kotacka
K
\
We’re usually a little more modest.
But we couldn’t help feeling proud of
what this team has created — a pro-
fessional, reliable Bulletin Board
System — that you can relate to.
The Major BBS® Version 6 provides:
•ELECTRONIC MAIL with file
attachments, carbon copies, return
receipts, message forwarding, mes-
sage quoting, distribution lists, and
user preferences.
• PUBLIC FORUM AREAS (up to
3500) with file attachments, message
threading, “Quickscan”, keyword
searching, and fully configurable
security access levels.
•MULTI-USER TELECONFER-
ENCE with 65,535 channels, confer-
ence “moderators”, and a private
chat mode.
1,000,000 files, file tagging, CD-
ROMs, keyword searching, and
optional file approval restrictions.
• MHS MESSAGE NETWORKING
with DaVinci E-Mail, cc:Mail, MCI
Mail, the Internet, CompuServe,
X.400 networks, and other third-
party message networks.
•FULL SCREEN EDITOR with
block commands, paragraph format-
ting, and message importing.
• FILE TRANSFERS via ZMODEM,
YMODEM-g, YMODEM-Batch,
XMODEM, KERMIT, Super-KER-
MIT, and ASCII protocols.
• MULTI-USER SUPPORT for up
to 256 simultaneous users — all on a
single desktop computer — via
modems and serial ports at up to
38,400 bps, and Novell LAN channels.
together with our Locks and Keys™
security system, give you total control.
Add-on options include advanced
LAN support. The Major Database™
X.25 connectivity, a Dial-Out pack-
age, a QWK-mail interface, C source
code, and dozens of third-party soft-
ware products.
But The Major BBS is more than just
bits and bytes. The design is well
thought out from a human point of
view. The documentation is thorough
and comprehensive, yet “reader-
friendly”. World-class tech support is
just a phone call away.
We want your business. Call now and
we’ll send you literature and a free
demo disk.
Sales & Literature Hotline
•FILE LIBRARY supporting over
10,000 sub-libraries and over
The Major BBS Version 6 requires a "286 or better
with 2MB or more, running MS-DOS 3.3 ( ,r higher
4101 SW 47th Ave. • Suite 101 • Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33314
BBS: (305) 583-7808 • Fax: (305) 583-7846 • Voice: (305) 583-5990
• PLUS: questionnaires, global com-
mands, a user registry, file displays,
remote system management tools,
and much more.
We went all out to make your life as
Sysop easier, too. Installation is
super-easy, with automatic modem
detection and customization utili-
ties. Fully configurable menus,
screens, prompts, help messages,
and user accounting options,
1 - 800 - 328-1128
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